Master / PhD Thesis

Currently we offer the following topics for master and PhD theses.

PhD position in physics or applied mathematics: molecular networks in cancer genesis

The Section for Science of Complex Systems, http://www.complex-systems.meduniwien.ac.at/ currently offers a PhD position for physics or applied mathematics for 2 (+1) years. One of the interests pursued in the group is to understand intra and inter cellular regulation and signaling systems at systemic levels. Our group is developing mathematical frameworks to deal with questions in this field in a systematic and quantitative way.

The applicant should have a strong interest in micro biological processes and be able to work in a multi-disciplinary environment. The focus of the work will be in modeling and understanding micro-biological mechanisms related to cancer genesis. More specifically we are interested in elucidating and possibly reconstructing the structure and dynamics of the regulatory networks involved in prostate cancers, starting involving molecular agents, such as NFkappaB, PTEN, or c-Myc which are known to play an important role in this context. The applicant should be fluent in Matlab, C, C++, and English. The applicant will work with genome and protein databases, automated literature mining, and with new experimental data provided by experimental groups.

Interested candidates please send your application & CV to anita.wanjek@meduniwien.ac.at before Dec 23, 2011. The position is available from Jan 2, 2012.

Contact: Stefan Thurner

Autocatalytic random models for artificial life

Research category: Artificial Cell

We want to engage a master/PhD student in our ongoing theoretical research in the field of artificial cells and proto-organisms. In recent years we have developed two models. One is particularly suited for studying statistical properties of evolving complex assembly systems. The other model is a minimally non-linear description of autocatalytic networks based on stochastic differential equations. Models of intra cellular chemical processes based on rate-equations are known to be a poor description of reality. However, by considering ensembles of systems it can be expected that such oversimplifying models can still predict various statistical properties of ensembles of proto-organisms. The master/PhD student will work on questions concerning relation between diversity on different levels of organization. In particular we are interested to systematically explore how differentiated organization can emerge in autocatalytic systems and how the number of possible forms of macro organization depends on the diversity of agents on the micro-scale. The student will try to explore these issues using the framework of the minimally non-linear SDE model as a starting point. The ideal student should have basic knowledge of differential equations and combinatorics. Some understanding of statistical mechanics or information theory is also a plus.

Contact: Rudolf Hanel

Random matrix approaches to massive data on human collective behavior

Research category: Measuring Societies

Quantification of human group-behavior has so far defied an empirical, falsifiable approach. This is due to tremendous difficulties in data acquisition of social systems. Massive multiplayer online games (MMOG) provide a fascinating new way of observing hundreds of thousands of simultaneously socially interacting individuals engaged in virtual economic activities. We have compiled a data set consisting of practically all actions of all players over a period of four years from a MMOG played by 300,000 people. This large-scale data set of a socio-economic unit contains all social and economic data from a single and coherent source. Players have to generate a virtual income through economic activities to "survive" and are typically engaged in a multitude of social activities offered within the game.

We want to engage a master/PhD student in our ongoing research activities related to this data set. In particular we want to use random matrix approaches and non-linear programming methods for identifying clusters of distinct human behavior. The goal of the master/PhD thesis is to come up with a novel classification scheme of human group behavior on the one side and of classes of individual behavior. One focus will be on economical decision making, and on testing to what extend there exist various classes of "utility functions" in societies.

Contact: Stefan Thurner

Analysis of socio-economic behavior in a massive multiplayer online game

Research category: Measuring Societies

The goal of the master/PhD thesis is to analyze time-evolving, aggregate data and to develop explanatory mathematical models of social and economic behavior in large-scale, networked human groups. Quantification of human group-behavior has so far defied an empirical, falsifiable approach. This is due to tremendous difficulties in data acquisition of social systems. Massive multiplayer online games (MMOG) provide a fascinating new way of observing hundreds of thousands of simultaneously socially interacting individuals engaged in virtual economic activities. We have compiled a data set consisting of practically all actions of all players over a period of four years from a MMOG played by 300,000 people. This large-scale data set of a socio-economic unit contains all social and economic data from a single and coherent source. Players have to generate a virtual income through economic activities to "survive" and are typically engaged in a multitude of social activities offered within the game.

We want to engage a master/PhD student in our ongoing research activities related to this data set. Focus of the master/PhD work will include one or more of the following topics: comparison of community detection algorithms, analysis of group formation/dissolution mechanics, detailed study of positive/negative social tie dynamics, time series analysis of donation activities, macroeconomy (gini index, wealth distribution,..), microeconomy (price formation, emergence of cartels,..), time series analysis of complete player activities, time series analysis and distributions of specific data (killing monsters, trade, spatial movement, skills,..), tracking of full "career paths".

Contact: Stefan Thurner

Entropies for complex systems

Research category: Statistical Mechanics

We want to engage a master/PhD student in our ongoing research on alternative formulations on entropy functionals. We have shown in the past that a fully consistent statistical mechanics of long-range interaction systems can be phrased in terms of generalized entropies. These entropies encode effective internal constraints in a statistical system which are not accessible to direct observation. By maximization of these entropies under constraints which contain the accessible information on the system, characteristic distribution functions - other than Boltzmann or Gaussian - are obtained. We established the most general setup under which these entropies yield a consistent thermodynamic description of complex systems. The master/PhD student will work on issues of stability of these systems. In particular she/he will try to mathematically demonstrate the equivalence of internal constraints with generalized entropies. This will involve changes of measure in the integration over states. The ideal student should have basic knowledge in measure theory, combinatorics and have some understanding of statistical mechanics or information theory.

Contact: Stefan Thurner