From statistical physics to information systems

Speaker: Dr. Massimo Franceschetti, University of California-San Diego
Abstract: Statistical physics originally developed to describe the collective behavior of large ensembles of interactive particles in matter. In this talk I will argue that the same mathematical tools can be exploited to study the behavior of complex information networks. This approach sheds new light on global properties of systems, including connectivity, achievable information rates, and robustness to failures. Key applications in the context of wireless ad-hoc networks will be presented. An overview of the relevant mathematical techniques based on percolation theory and Poisson approximation will be given.
Biography: Massimo Franceschettii is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of University of California at San Diego. He received the Laurea degree, magna cum laude, in Computer Engineering from the University of Naples in 1997, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1999, and 2003 respectively. Before joining UCSD, he was a post-doctoral scholar at University of California at Berkeley for two years. At Caltech, his doctoral thesis was awarded the C.H. Wilts Prize for best thesis in Electrical Engineering, and the 2000 Walker von Brimer award for outstanding research initiative. Prof. Franceschetti also received the 2005 S.A Schelkunoff transactions prize paper award from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation society (jointly with profs. J. Bruck and L. J. Shulman) for his work on wave propagation and scattering based on random walk theory.
Presented On: Friday, December 9, 2005
Videotape: Franceshettii.mov