More roads, more traffic? Braess paradox!
The, seemingly innocent and quite natural, idea to build more roads in order to solve the traffic problem can be sometimes quite a bad idea.
Is a rapidly mutating virus unstoppable?
How can one hope to understand the precise structure of a virus if it is able to become unrecognizable within weeks? The mathematics behind this questions didn't let go of my mind for extensive periods of time during my PhD studies in Belgium.
Centrality measures: who is the most important in a network?
In this article, we discuss several ways to quantify the importance of nodes in a network. We will discuss how a simple game can help study this special property, and how it can help us in cases like reducing fake news.
Back to school!
Last month I was back in the classroom. But this time the kiddos in my class were quite younger than I'm used to: instead of a class of university students, this time I had an enthusiastic group of school students in front of me.
The Versatility of Reinforcement Learning
After a busy week at work, Reinforcement Learning slowly sinks into his leather armchair. A smoky aroma fills the room to the tune of a crackling fire. With a deep gaze fixed on the flames dancing in the fireplace, he leisurely takes a sip of red wine.
A wonderful journey immersing in discrete mathematics
Last January I was very pleased to attend an annual summer school in discrete mathematics in Valparaíso, Chile. It was the very first time for me to attend such a summer school overseas as a master’s student. It was a wonderful journey, especially when discussing mathematics.
Is it easier to find half a needle than a full needle in a random network?
Common sense tells us that objects of comparable size should be equally hard to find. Yet, when searching inside a random network, surprises are awaiting . . .
Distributed consensus: What do money transactions and attacking armies have in common?
In February 2014, a big bank in the Netherlands suffered from an internet banking malfunction which led many costumers to accidentally perform duplicate bank transfers.
Networks behind riots: help reduce riots just by following a "riot".
Since 2016 the world has been witnessing the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, in 2021 we all saw the Capitol riots on tv. What do networks have to do with these events?
AI thinks my dog is a Pig! Want to know why?
Applications of machine learning models are everywhere, with many online platforms and major science fields using tools relying on machine learning. Take, for example, image recognition and computer vision. But did you know that the results of supposedly perfect and accurate machine learning models can be deceived by slight perturbations in the data?