Rackham Faculty Allies Speaker Series: Mohammad Irfan

Title:  The Power of Context in Networks

Abstract:  I’ll present recent work with my undergraduate students on the power of context in modeling strategic behavior in networks. In particular, I’ll highlight game-theoretic modeling, learning, and inference in the setting of the U.S. Senate. For example, who are the most influential senators in the context of certain types of legislation? Is Congress as polarized as everyone says these days? While addressing these questions, I’ll show the powers and limitations of game-theoretic modeling and how the underlying behavioral context could be impactful. In addition to my research, I’ll also talk about faculty life in a leading liberal arts college, especially after coming to the U.S. as an international student.

Bio:  Mohammad is an Assistant Professor at Bowdoin College in Maine. He holds a joint appointment with Computer Science and Digital & Computational Studies. He got his PhD in Computer Science from Stony Brook University in 2013. His research involves interdisciplinary problems at the intersection of AI and social sciences that arise in complex, strategic, and network-structured domains. He also dabbled a little bit in image analysis of Jackson Pollock’s paintings. His research is supported by NSF. A native of Bangladesh, he loves nature, soccer, and tennis.