Supernetworks
Laboratory for Computation and Visualization
The
Supernetworks Laboratory for Computation and Visualization is part of
the Virtual Center for Supernetworks at the Isenberg School of
Management at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst.
It advances research in and the application of network-based
decision-making and support tools for a wide spectrum of
applications. Recent
projects have focused on:
- Network
efficiency/performance measurement and vulnerability and robustness
analysis with
applications to the security of critical infrastructure networks
(transportation, telecommunication, supply chain, electric power, financial,
etc.), along with the importance identification and ranking of network
components (nodes and links);
- Dynamic
(time-dependent) networks,
including congested transportation networks, electric power grids,
supply chains, financial networks, and the Internet;
- Mergers and acquisitions of multiproduct firms and oligopolistic firms;
- Humanitarian logistics;
- Sustainable
transportation networks and supply chains, along with congestion
pricing;
- Electric power
generation, distribution, and consumption modeling along with
environmental and energy impacts with optimal policies from carbon
taxes to
multipollutant permit trading schemes;
- Optimization of
Internet-based pricing and advertising strategies and the explanation
of related paradoxes;
- Multitiered
supply chain networks (including global ones) in an environment of risk
and uncertainty and with electronic commerce;
- Financial networks
with intermediation, electronic transactions, and risk
management;
- Integrated social
networks with supply chains and financial networks;
- Management of
knowledge intensive dynamic systems with applications to national
security;
- Modeling the dynamics
of human interactions and their interactions with technologically-based
network systems;
- Electronic recycling
(e-cycling) networks and other environmental supply chains.
We provide rigorous solutions to network-based, complex decision-making
problems in which there may be several (or many) interacting
decision-makers. Our focus is on displaying the solutions in different
formats including visual ones to gain a greater understanding of the
various interactions between humans and their impacts on critical
network systems that underly our societies and economies.
Methodological
advances have included the development of double-layered dynamics
for
the unification of projected dynamical systems and evolutionary
variational inequalities. In addition, we have established that both
electric power generation and distribution networks as well as
financial networks can be reformulated and solved as transportation
network problems, thus, resolving hypotheses posed over 50 years ago!
We have also shown that the time-dependent Braess paradox can be
modeled and solved as an evolutionary variational inequality. Finally,
we have developed a network efficiency/performance measure that
captures: demands, flows, costs, and behavior to accurately
assess the impact of the removal of various network components and
their impact on the network. The measure has been applied to congested
networks such as transportation networks, as well as to financial
networks, electric power networks, as well as to the Internet, and has
major implications for vulnerability analysis and security.
The Supernetworks Laboratory consists of a conference area in which
researchers, practitioners, guests, and visitors can meet to discuss
problems and solutions, as well as a work area for center associates.
Center associates work on state-of-the art computers and also
collaborate virtually with others through the Virtual Center for
Supernetworks. Numerous journals and books on network themes are
available in the lab along with papers authored by the associates as
well as books. See Downloadable
Articles.
Support for the Virtual Center and the Supernetworks Laboratory has
been provided by the National Science Foundation, the AT&T
Foundation, as well as the John F. Smith Memorial Foundation at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, as well as the Isenberg School
of Management. This support is gratefully acknowledged.
Since the establishment of the Supernetworks Laboratory in 2003, it has
been the venue for:
- the
planning of the Rockefeller Foundation Conference at the Bellagio
Center on Lake Como, Italy on "Humanitarian Logistics: Networks for
Africa," organized by Professor Anna Nagurney,
- preparations for the
Fulbright Senior Specialist grant awarded to Professor Anna Nagurney
which will take place at
the University of Catania in Italy in March 2008,
- the
planning and co-organization with
Professor David Parkes of Harvard University of the Dynamic Networks
Exploratory Seminar held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
at Harvard University,
- the visit of
Professor Dietrich Braess who discovered the Braess paradox in which
the addition of a road/link to a transportation network can make
everyone worse off in terms of travel time/cost,
- the visit of
Professor Werner Rothengatter from the University of Karlsruhe, a
leader in transportation and project management, in whose honor a
minisymposium was held,
- a mini-workshop on
the Management of Knowledge Intensive Systems,
- a university-wide
Open House,
- a TV interview of the
Supernetworks Team which aired on the Steve Lappas Show,
- interviews of members
of the supernetwork team conducted by journalists; coverage has
included that by bloomberg.com,
NetworkWorld, ComputerWorld, and
ITWorld, National Public Radio (NPR), as well as other media
outlets,
- visits from academics
from the US and Europe,
- visits from
representatives of logistics companies and financial services,
- meetings with
industrial liaison and economic development experts from the University
of Massachusetts,
- a visit by a
researcher preparing a documentary on electronic recycling, and
- the homebase for the
development of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst INFORMS
Student Chapter, and its well-recognized Speaker Series, which has
brought outstanding researchers and practitioners to the Isenberg
School of Management.
Research
conducted by the Center Associates has been recognized by a Science
Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard
University, by the AT&T
Foundation through two Industrial Ecology awards, by the National
Science Foundation through its sustained support, by the Rockefeller
Foundation through its Bellagio Center Program, and by several
distinctions including: a SUNY Chancellor's Award,
President’s Award, and two Provost’s Awards, a Chow
Fellowship, as well as a Distinguished Chaired Fulbright Award and a
Fulbright Senior Specialist Award, plus a
Regional Science Association International (RSAI) Fellow Award.
Activities conducted through the Supernetworks Laboratory have been
also recognized by an INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and
the Management Sciences) Moving Spirit Award given to Professor Anna
Nagurney and the Judith Liebman Award given to Center Associate Dr.
Tina Wakolbinger.
Invited talks by the Center Director,
Professor Anna Nagurney, and Center Associates have been given in
China, Italy, Iceland, Sweden, Canada, England, the US, and other
countries.
Graduate
students who have worked in the Supernetworks Lab have assumed
prominent positions at such institutions as the University of
Connecticut, the University of Sydney in Australia, McGill
University
and York University in Canada, and the University of Memphis.
Media coverage of the Center and the Supernetworks Laboratory can
be found at Media.
Please
see the Center Associates page of the
Virtual Center for Supernetworks
for individual curriculum vitae with additional information.
If you are interested
in paying a visit to the Supernetworks Laboratory
and/or in partnering with the Center and Lab, please contact the
Director, Anna Nagurney, the John F.
Smith Memorial Professor: nagurney@isenberg.umass.edu.
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Copyright 2004 - 2012
This
is an official web page of the
Eugene M.
Isenberg
School of Management
University of
Massachusetts, Amherst
Maintained by
supernet@isenberg.umass.edu |
Last Update: March 13, 2012
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