Research Challenges in Smart Networks of People, Machines and Organisations

We live in a networked society where everything is connected to everything else and where we are constantly surrounded by a very diverse set of networks. By 2020 there will be 8 billion people and 50 billion machines in the world and almost all of them will be connected through some kind of network. Furthermore, people and machines that share a certain collective goal will group themselves into some kind of organization, which again will be connected with other organizations and/or people/machines. In order to maintain sustainability of the networked society we need a framework and algorithms which will enable us to i) manage trust; and ii) coordinate interactions in such a complex eco-system consisting of thousands, millions or even billions of interconnected entities. Both the Smart Networks framework and associated algorithms should be scalable and robust (from the perspective of a network size and heterogeneity), support real-time dynamics (from the perspective of network interactions) as well as be applicable and analysable at different levels of granularity (at a micro, mezzo and macro network levels).

This seminar will present research challenges in smart networks of people, machines and organizations through several specific research problems: measuring trust and influence in smart networks of people, creating virtual power plants from electric vehicles in smart networks of machines and analysing dynamics of sport brands in smart networks of organizations. 

Vedran Podobnik is an Assistant Professor at the Telecommunication Department of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb. He received M.Eng. (2006, Electrical Engineering) and Ph.D. (2010, Computer Science) degrees from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, as well as M.Phil. (2013, Technology Policy) degree from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. As a junior researcher, he received the Croatian Annual National Award for Science in the field of technical sciences (2011, awarded by the Croatian Parliament). As a PhD student, he received the Croatian Annual National Award SCIENCE in area of technical and biotechnical sciences (2007, awarded by the Croatian Science Foundation). His research interests include smart business, social technologies, technology policy, multi-agent systems, electronic markets and context-aware services. He is the leader of the projects “Managing Trust and Coordinating Interactions in Smart Networks of People, Machines and Organizations”, funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, and “A Platform for Context-Aware Social Networking of Mobile Users (SmartSocial)”, funded by the Ericsson Nikola Tesla company. He co-authored over 50 scientific and professional papers. He is a member of IEEE, ACM and KES International associations, as well as Cambridge Union Society.

Jurica Babic received his B.Sc. degree in Computing at the Department of Telecommunications of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb in 2010. He continued his education on the second cycle study programme (M.Sc.) “Information and Communication Technology”, where he received his M.Sc. degree in 2012. His master thesis was entitled “A Simulation Platform for Power Trading”. After acquiring master's degree, he enrolled in the postgraduate study (Ph.D.) at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb, as well as joined the Department of Telecommunications as a Research Associate. His research interest is in electricity trading within the smart grid environment, with focus on electric vehicles and Power TAC simulation platform. He is a member of IEEE association and KES International.