Refer to the schedule for details of each lecture’s topic, reading, and assignments. The schedule will be filled in as the semester proceeds.

Do readings before class

Week Date Topic Reading Assignments
1 9/10 Course overview; intro to graph theory [slides] Ch. 1, 2.1–2.3 Join Piazza. Follow instructions for first post.
2 9/15 Strong and weak ties [slides] Ch. 3.1–3.3
9/17 Structural holes and homophily (reading only)
Strucural Balance [slides]		 Ch 3.5, 4.1
Ch 5.1–5.3		 HW 1 out (due Thursday 9/24)
3 9/22 Game Theory [slides] [notes] Ch 6.1–6.4
9/24 More Game Theory [slides] Ch 6.5–6.9 HW 1 due; HW 2 out (due Thursday 10/1)
4 9/29 Traffic in Networks [slides] Ch. 8.1–8.2 Blog posts announced; first one due Wed 10/7
10/1 Auctions [slides] Ch. 9.1–9.6
5 10/6 MOUNTAIN DAY
10/8 Matching Markets: Perfect Matchings [slides] Ch. 10.1–10.3
6 10/13 FALL BREAK
10/15 Matching Markets: Market-Clearing Prices [slides] Ch. 10.4–10.5 HW 3 out (due Thursday 10/22)
7 10/20 Network Exchange Theory [slides] Ch. 12.1–12.3
10/22 Network Exchange Theory Ch. 12.4–12.8 HW 4 out (due Thursday 10/29)
8 10/27 The World Wide Web [slides] Ch. 13
Vannevar Bush As we may think
10/29 Link Analysis and Web Search [slides] Ch. 14 HW 1–3 solutions (moodle)
9 11/3 Midterm
11/5 Guest lecture by Kat Kalvin in Cleveland L2
10 11/10 Sponsored Search [slides] Ch. 15.1,15.2
11/12 Lecture canceled
11 11/17 VCG Mechanism [slides] Ch. 15.3 HW 5 out (due Tuesday 11/24)
11/19 Generalized Second Price Auctions
12 11/24 Epidemics [slides] Ch. 21.1–21.4
11/26 THANKSGIVING
13 12/1 Diffusion of Innovation [slides] Ch. 19.1–19.4 HW 6 out (due Tuesday 12/8)
12/3 Small-world Phenomenon & Decentralized Search [slides]
14 12/8 Decentralized Search HW 7 out (canceled)
12/10 Power-Laws and Rich-Get-Richer [slides]
15 12/15 Course Wrap-up and Final Review [slides]

List of topics and tentative schedule

Subject to change