Professor Noshir Contractor received his PhD from the University of Southern California in Communication and is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences. He holds appointments in the Departments of Communication Studies, Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences, and Management & Organizations. Contractor teaches Understanding & Leveraging Networks in the MSC curriculum. His research includes investigating factors that lead to the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of dynamically linked social and knowledge networks in communities. Contractor directs the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) laboratory where his research team is developing and testing theories and methods of network science.

Course

Understanding and Leveraging Networks

This course provides students with the concepts, insights, and techniques that will give them a competitive edge as they discover, diagnose and design these networks. The course offers a set of strategic principles for students to create, maintain and dissolve network ties. These principles vary depending on a student’s desire to explore innovations, engage in entrepreneurship, exploit existing resources, implement change, or mobilize for strategic partnerships. The course will identify the optimal principles in these diverse contexts using a set of case studies, review articles and computer-based visual-analytic demonstrations. By the end of the course, students will have the conceptual tools and techniques to assess an existing network and specify how it should be rewired to achieve any desired individual or organizational goal.