swissnex India invites Hans Herrmann, theoretical physicist and professor at ETH Zürich, to discuss prevention of destruction of networks and applications to power them. The lecture is co-organized by swissnex India and Swiss Re India to provide high-level inputs on risk to inspire peers, future leaders, and potential partners.

Meet the Speaker –

Abstract of the presentation –

The Internet, protein interactions or social organizations are examples for complex networks. Such networks typically cease to be operational when they fall apart in disconnected pieces. Destruction can happen randomly or due to a malicious attack. I will present various strategies of optimizing the robustness of networks preserving some of their properties as for instance their degree distribution. Artificial networks like the Apollonian network can serve to systematically investigate the optimization process. The optimized networks exhibit a novel “onion-like” topology. Applications to power networks, botnets, road systems and brain models will be discussed. Particularly dramatic failures occur when two networks are coupled, like for example the electric grid and the communication network. The abruptness in the connectivity at collapse can be attenuated through autonomous nodes and I will discuss strategies to optimize the choice of these nodes.