Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Identifying Influentials In Directed Networks, Guillermo Gutierrez

Student Symposium

Research into the identification of influential nodes specifically with regards to weighted, directed networks has been lacking throughout the lifetime of Network Theory as a whole. This research project seeks to propel the field forward through by devising an algorithm aimed at identifying influential nodes through the use of probability propagation models of information transfer through various real-world networks. The networks discussed are a developed test-network using the Price Model of citation network growth, the neuronal connectivity network of the flatworm C. elegans, and Congressional co-sponsorship networks of the USA’s 110th House and Senate. Rankings of influence of each node, …

Educational Inequality - How We Systematically Fail Our Children, Paige Ross

Student Symposium

Poor urban youth of color are left behind every step of the way- beginning with education. We are failing these children by not providing them with the necessary tools to be successful today in America. Our social classes and neighborhoods are racially segregated, causing disparities in school funding, due to government legislature that further advances these forgotten children deeper into disparity.

Whites are 1.8-2.3 times more likely to graduate from college, and this push for higher education begins in pre-K programs unavailable to historically non-White impoverished neighborhoods. The issue of educational inequality always comes back to that of systematically oppressive …