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Data Science and AI Academy

WolfWebs Project to Foster Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Social Network Analysis

April 11, 2024

By Olivia Rojas, DSA Content Writer

In collaboration with the Office for Research Innovation, the Data Science Academy (DSA) awards seed grants that support interdisciplinary data science research efforts. In 2022, DSA funded “WolfWebs: Social Network Analysis at NC State,” a project that aims to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of Social Network Analysis (SNA). 

The project team — which consists of Steve McDonald from the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Andrew Davis from the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Branda Nowell from the College of Humanities & Social Sciences and Robin Dodsworth from the College of Humanities & Social Sciences — saw the seed grant funding as an opportunity to bridge the gap between various academic disciplines by facilitating connections among faculty and graduate students engaged in SNA research.

According to the team, there is a growing need to develop an interdisciplinary community of SNA scholars at NC State in order to advance the institution’s goal of conducting high impact and cutting edge research, while also preparing students to become future leaders in the field of data science.

“So one of the goals of this project is generating awareness of this type of approach and developing a community of people that are interested in this topic,” said McDonald. “The other part of it is the teaching component to it as well. It’s not only getting people interested but to what extent can we broaden out the training for students and for faculty as well. I’ve had plenty of faculty who have been very interested in the work we are doing and they want to incorporate SNA in their research as well.” 

Thanks to seed grant funding, the WolfWebs project has achieved significant accomplishments. A highlight is the establishment of a prestigious speaker series, attracting renowned SNA researchers nationwide to present their work on campus. Additionally, WolfWebs has launched a website and sifted through faculty profiles, compiling a comprehensive list of local scholars that engaged in or interested in pursuing SNA research.

Also, the project has identified top-tier SNA scholars spanning various disciplines from campus. To kickstart this initiative, WolfWebs organized a kick-off event on November 29, 2022. The event featured a panel discussion, diving into the topic of SNA methodologies using research co-authorship data.

Additionally, because of this project, the DSA is now offering courses in Social Network Analysis. From network measurement to community detection to simulation techniques, students and faculty can take DSC 295: Introduction to Social Network Analysis to learn more about the primary tools used to visualize and analyze network data. 

For the future of Wolfwebs, McDonald says they are continuing the speaker series and are planning to expand the course offerings on SNA. On the research side, the team has submitted a grant proposal to study how social networks are associated with the diffusion of language and dialect, and they are planning on working with the College of Education to study mentoring networks. 

“We are really starting to develop a series of interdisciplinary projects,” McDonald said. “It’s those collaborations that are coming up in the near future.”