Naghizadeh earns NSF CAREER award for multilayer network research
Parinaz Naghizadeh, assistant professor in the Departments of Integrated Systems Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received a five-year, $550,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation for her research on multilayer networks.
The CAREER award is the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of both. Naghizadeh’s project is funded by the NSF program, Communication and Information Foundations.
Her project, “Decision Making, Learning, and Incentive Design in Multilayer Networks” will leverage tools from optimization, game theory, machine learning, and graph theory towards building an analytical framework for the study of multilayer networks.
According to Naghizadeh, networks are prevalent in all aspects of society. Moreover, many networks, including critical infrastructures such as communication, power, and transportation networks, are highly interdependent. While considerable research exists on the modeling and analysis of isolated networks, the study of interdependent and co-evolving networks faces many open challenges.
“Our research aims to address these challenges and contribute to closing this knowledge gap,” said Naghizadeh. “This project will allow us to conduct a holistic study of multilayer and interdependent networks, as opposed to focusing on each network individually. It will enhance our ability to design and evaluate economic and regulatory interventions, and prevent unwanted equilibria or learning outcomes, in complex network environments.”
A substantial element of the proposed work is to integrate education and outreach activities alongside the proposed research agenda. Naghizadeh aims to broaden participation in the proposed research areas and provide audiences at all levels with applied and hands-on experiences, including through collaboration with programs at The Ohio State University.
Naghizadeh joined Ohio State’s College of Engineering in 2019 and is affiliated with the Translational Data Analytics Institute. Prior to Ohio State, she was a postdoctoral research associate at Purdue University and Princeton University Edge Lab. She earned her bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Iran. At the University of Michigan, she earned master’s degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, and a doctorate in electrical engineering.
by Meggie Biss, College of Engineering Communications | biss.11@osu.edu
