Topic outline

  • General

    Welcome to the Wonderful World of Networks!


    A model network with both triangle and tree-like structures


    Nature is full of networks, from the intracellular machinery inside us to the complex networks of neurons that form our brains, and to the vast number of networks formed by humans, from physical and online social networks to technological systems such as the Internet. 

    These networks are important from many points of view—understanding how they work is essential for understanding many natural and social phenomena, from the spreading of diseases to information flows in social networks, and from cascading power grid failures to financial crises. 

    The Complex Networks course provides you with an introduction to the modern theory of networks, together with skills for applying this knowledge to real-world networks and empirical data. 

    About the course

    The course consists of lectures and course assignments (= eight weekly exercises and one project work). There is no exam—grading is based on points from the course assignments (60% needed for passing the course). Assignments comprise mainly computer exercises with Python, accompanied by some pen-and-paper maths. Thus, elementary programming skills are required. We'll provide a short Python tutorial and introduce the NetworkX package used in this course. Solving the exercises requires some time each week, so please plan your studies accordingly.

    This year, the lectures and exercise sessions will be held in person on campus. Video recordings of the lectures will be made available too. Most of the course material will be published in MyCourses before the first lecture (6 September).

    The course will be lectured by Takayuki Hiraoka (takayuki.hiraoka@aalto.fi) and Mikko Kivelä. Course assistants are Onerva Korhonen, Zahra Ghadiri, Sara Heydari, Zhiren Huang, Tarmo Nurmi, Silja Sormunen, and Javier Ureña Carrion. The preferred email address for contacting the course staff is cs-e5740@aalto.fi. 

    Welcome to the course, and please do not forget to register via Sisu! For students coming from other universities than Aalto, please obtain an Aalto user account before attending the course.