Course Syllabus

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MATH 7.04 SPRING 2025
First-Year Seminar: Analyzing Network Data

Instructor:  Peter J. Mucha, Kemeny 240,
peter.j.mucha@dartmouth.edu, https://mucha.host.dartmouth.edu. 

Lecture Information:  9L (MWF 8:50–9:55), Haldeman 028.

Please hold the 9LX hour (Thursdays 9:05–9:55) open for possible use.

Full class meetings at the 9LX time, with attendance expected, will be held on 5/22 and Tuesday 6/3, with other possible dates TBD.

Office Hours:  Tuesdays 1:30–2:30 and Thursdays 11–12 in Kemeny 240, and by appointment (a DM on the Dartmouth Slack will almost always get a faster response than email).

Full Syllabus: syllabus.pdf

Course Schedule: Note future topics listed here are tentative and will likely move around as time permits. An "R" in the schedule means we will have class in the Thursday X-hour. Similarly, a "T" means we will have class in the corresponding Tuesday time (9:05–9:55). Materials referenced include the texts by Christakis & Fowler ("CF"), Kolaczyk & Csardi ("KC"), and McCabe.
Week Topics

1

MWF

Introduction to and Properties of Network Data

  • Monday 3/31: Course organization, installing R, and start KC chapter 2.
  • Wednesday 4/2: KC sections 2.2 and 2.3.
  • Friday 4/4: Introduction to Writing Assistants. KC section 2.4. Highlights at start of KC chapter 4.

2

MWF

Network Influence, Critically Evaluating a Journal Article

  • Monday 4/7: Class discussion about CF chapters 1 and 2.
  • Wednesday 4/9: Crafting a thesis. 
  • Friday 4/11: Class discussion about CF chapters 3 and 4.

3

MWF

Constructive Feedback, Political Networks 

  • Monday 4/14: Peer feedback about journal article takeaways.
  • Wednesday 4/16: Class discussion about CF chapter 6.
  • Friday 4/18: Peer feedback about journal article summaries.

4

MWF

Models of Networks

  • Monday 4/21: Quarto documents in R and start KC chapter 4.
  • Wednesday 4/23: Finish KC chapter 4 with foreshadowing for chapter 5.
  • Friday 4/25: Highlights of KC chapter 5.

5

MWF

Your Ego Network

  • Monday 4/28: Class discussion about McCabe introduction and chapters 1 and 2.
  • Wednesday 4/30: In-class computational troubleshooting ego network data.
  • Friday 5/2: Class discussion about McCabe chapters 3–5 (each student picks 1).

6

MWF

Writing as Thinking in a Computational Notebook, Constructive Feedback

  • Monday 5/5: Highlights from selected data sets (including brief mention of SpringRank). Examples of community detection (including tools in ideanet).
  • Wednesday 5/7: Class discussion with Prof. Janice McCabe, Dept. of Sociology.
  • Friday 5/9: Peer feedback about computational notebooks.

7

MWF

Writing Like a Mathematical Scientist

  • Monday 5/12: Writing for style and clarity, and Zotero.
  • Wednesday 5/14: Highlights of submitted computational notebooks.
  • Friday 5/16: Introduction to LaTeX and Overleaf.

8

WRF

More Applications of Networks, Constructive Feedback

  • Monday 5/19: No class meeting
  • Wednesday 5/21: KC section 6.2.
  • Thursday 5/22: More from KC (sections TBD).
  • Friday 5/23: Peer feedback about project report outlines.

9

No class meetings or office hours — work on your projects and ask questions over Slack

10

MTW

Final Project Reports, Constructive Feedback

  • Monday 6/2: Short project presentations
  • Tuesday 6/3: Short project presentations
  • Wednesday 6/4: Peer feedback about project reports.

Course Summary:

Course Summary
Date Details Due