Research on various patterns and phenomena in society from a network perspective

Our society is filled with various networks, such as friendship networks consisting of connections between people, networks among products purchased at the same time, and networks on the Internet. It is becoming clear that these various networks have common characteristics, which are called complex networks. This is a relatively new field of study that emerged in the last half of the 20th century and is called network science.

In my research, I am trying to understand the unknown state of society by clarifying the structure and function of networks latent in society, the mechanism of their formation, and the mechanism of control and guidance to realize more efficient networks, while making full use of mathematical models and computer simulations.

Specifically, I am conducting the following research.

Modeling of autonomous and decentralized social network formation

Social networks such as friendship networks can be viewed as networks constructed by individuals choosing to form edges with each other in an autonomous and decentralized manner, and can be modeled based on game theory.
"What kind of network is constructed by the gains from the network and the strategic decision model of the players?"
What kind of settings lead to the network structure observed in the real world ?"
We are challenging to clarify these questions by using network theory and computer simulations.

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Controlling and Guiding Social Networks to Control the Spread of Infectious Diseases

The structure of social networks has a strong influence on the efficiency of infectious disease spreads. In response to the recent spread of COVID-19, policies have been implemented to control the spread of infectious diseases by limiting human contact, but social activities have also been strongly restricted. Toward a post-pandemic society,
"What is the appropriate social network structure to control the spread of infectious diseases while maintaining a certain level of social activity ?"
"What is the optimal vaccination strategy to control the spread of infectious diseases ?"
We are challenging to clarify these questions through network theory, mathematical models, and computer simulations.

Analysis and Modeling of Collaboration Networks

The coauthorship network of an academic paper is a network in which authors are nodes and authors in a coauthorship relationship are connected by edges, and can be viewed as one of the social networks formed by collaboration.
"How are collaboration networks formed ?"
"How will it grow in the future ?"
In order to clarify these questions, we extracted a large number of papers from academic literature databases to construct networks of co-authors in each academic field, and then analyzed the differences in characteristics and efficiency in each academic field using network theory and large-scale data analysis techniques.

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Solving local business issues through IoT and AI

Recent advances in AI and IoT technologies are enabling the automation and streamlining of various tasks that were performed by human workers previously.
For example, in factory production lines, IoT systems using sensors, cameras, and single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi can acquire and store data, and machine learning such as deep learning can be used to automate and streamline tasks such as anomaly detection and efficiency improvement that have been performed by skilled on-site workers based on their intuition and experience.

I have studied on the following related researches.

Research 1: IoTization of submergible fish cages at offshore

Observation of the inside of fish cases using commercially available cameras and various sensors, and remote control of the inside of fish cages and feeding operations using smart phones
Intelligent feeding to maximize growth efficiency by machine learning based on feeding and growth data

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Research 2: IoTization of Factory Production Equipment and Automatic Detection of Product Abnormality Using AI

Continuous monitoring and data acquisition by installing cameras on factory production lines
Automatic detection of product anomalies based on machine learning and alerting
Predictive detection of product anomalies