By the end of the seminar Social Network Analysis, which I offer for example as part of the supplementary programme Data Literacy at the University of Bayreuth, our students produce great seminar papers that need to be shown to a greater audience.
In the seminar, students are asked to work on self-selected research questions using methods of network analysis. The methods are new to the students in that they never worked with them before. That's why the seminar consists of some introductory part in which the methods are presented and their applicability using R is discussed. Students then formulate an appropriate research question, find or create a data set, and apply the newly acquired methods to the data set.
In the vast majority of cases, students have had no prior exposure to programming. This means that in the seminar they not only learn to apply the methods for network analysis in R, but often teach themselves basic skills in R as well.
Below, you find some of the posters that have been created over time.
The latest iteration of the seminar can be viewed here. Below, you find some of the posters that have been created over time.
Winter 2023¶
NODES OF KNOWLEDGE: A Network Perspective on ERASMUS+ Educational Mobility in 2021
Rebekka Koch
Driven by the complexity of international student exchanges via the ERASMUS+ program, this analysis aims to gain insights into the dynamics of student mobility among European countries by conducting a network analysis. The results show that there are few differences in the structure of the ERASMUS+ networks across adult, higher, and school education. The higher education network is the densest one with the most participants. The in- and out-degree centralities show a high participation in the study program in both directions throughout all levels of education. The countries that attract the most students overlap in the different networks: although both Spain and Italy are among the five most popular destination countries across all education levels, Spain is the overall favorite, which could be related to its relatively low cost of living index and higher average temperature compared to the other countries.
POWER DYNAMICS: An Examination of Development Payments Across Borders
Luisa Reis
Wie teilen sich führende Industrienationen als Geberländer in Bezug auf bilaterale Entwicklungszahlungen die Welt auf und wo existieren Unterschiede? Diese Frage sollte in diesem Projekt beantwortet werden, um die weltweiten Machtströme und Einflüsse von Ländern, wie Deutschland oder der USA, besser zu verstehen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die USA vor allem Konfliktregionen wie Afghanistan unterstützen und bedeutenden Einfluss in Ländern wie Israel ausüben, während sich Deutschland auf Asien, Europa und Lateinamerika fokussiert. Japan hingegen priorisiert Ozeanien.
Globaler Öl- und Gashandel von 1990-2019
Niklas Reinhart
"Triggered by the energy crisis, the question arose as to how the oil and gas trade has developed over the last 30 years in order to understand how dependency comes about and what alternatives are emerging in the procurement of oil and gas.
The analysis looks at the changes in global oil and gas trade from 1990-2019 in order to visualize which dependencies and main trade routes exist. In the course of the visualization and when looking at the data, it becomes clear that Russia exports to the most different countries, while Saudi Arabia exports the largest volume. The role of the USA as an important trading hub also becomes clear, as it imports from many countries, but exports to many countries just as much. Dependencies and important trade routes crystallize from the analysis, such as Germany's dependence on Russia, while Japan's oil and gas resources are mainly sourced from the ""Middle East"".
Domestic trade was not taken into account in the analysis."
We analysed the new EU AI Act: Can we uncover the regulatory focus?
Claudius Budcke
The European Parliament unveiled the latest draft of the AI Act, the world's first comprehensive law to regulate artificial intelligence. This analysis delves into the AI Act using text network visualization to discern the prominence and connectivity of terms within.
Motivated by the need to understand the legislative focus on cutting-edge AI technology, our research questions which concepts hold central importance and how they interrelate. We've discovered that 'person' and 'law' form key clusters, distinguished by their notably weak internal connections compared to other community clusters. This observation indicates that the legislation emphasizes the accountability of providers, who are significantly more associated with the 'law' cluster than the 'person' cluster. Additionally, the study conducts further analysis on the top search results from Google Scholar and regular Google Search for the keyword 'AI' to compare legislative efforts with the interests of both the academic world and the general public.
Winter 2022¶
Trends in der Filmindustrie
Anna Hagendorn, Ronja Schiller, Simon Schuster
Die Filmindustrie hat sich, was die Produktionslandschaft und die Herkunftsländer der Schauspieler*innen betrifft, von den 1980er bis zu den 2010er Jahren stark international ausgedehnt. Auch die Genres der Filme sind vielfältiger, es gibt mehr Filme mit multiplen Genres als noch in den 1980ern. Insgesamt ist also eine stetige Diversifizierung der Filmlandschaft zu erkennen. Einzig im Bereich der Geschlechterverteilung findet sich trotz aktueller gesellschaftlicher Debatte eine ungleiche Geschlechterverteilung wieder, die sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten kaum verändert hat.
Heute Helios - und morgen? Das Hire-and-Fire-Netzwerk hinter Deutschlands größtem privaten Klinikkonzern
Moritz Decker, Katharina Wagener
In Krankenhäusern ist die Wechselbereitschaft bzw. die Fluktuation unter Geschäftsführer*innen sehr hoch. Doch wo wechseln die Geschäftsführer*innen hin? Lassen sich bei den Krankenhäusern „Abstellgleise“ oder „Schleudersitze“ erkennen? Diese Frage soll für Deutschlands größten privaten Klinikkonzern Helios mit über 87 Kliniken mittels einer Netzwerkanalyse beantwortet werden.
Abstimmung und Nebentätigkeiten im Bundestag: Beeinflusst Lobbyarbeit das Abstimmungsverhalten?
Veronika Schlosser
Die Mitglieder des deutschen Bundestages üben oftmals Nebentätigkeiten außerhalb ihres Mandats im Bundestag aus. Anhand dieser Analyse soll herausgearbeitet werden, ob sich ein Muster aus dem Abstimmungsverhalten und ähnlichen Nebenjobs der PolitkerInnen ergibt. Beeinflusst die Branche des Nebenjobs das Abstimmungsverhalten?
Winter 2021¶
Country Connections via Netflix
Alina Benz
This work investigates if the USA is the only global successful producer of movies and series. Therefore, a dataset with the top 10 movies and series per week and country by the most successful streaming service Netflix is analyzed. The strongest connections between countries are clearly by the USA, but especially in Asia there is a strong interregional connection. On a continent level, a connected graph gets visible.
Is FC Bayern Munich Killing Off Their Competition?
Benedikt Lieb
Due to its continued success, FC Bayern Munich is a polarizing club with many followers and just as many critics. One of the main points of criticism lies in Bayern's transfer policy, which many claim aims to strategically weaken the competition in the Bundesliga by buying their direct competitors' valuable players. This project explores whether the data on transfer expenses between Bundesliga clubs support this claim. The analysis indicates that while Bayern is not the top buyer in the league, their buying decisions might indeed be influenced by the selling clubs' threat to Bayern's dominance.
Fraktionszwang im dt. Bundestag
Lukas Bachmeier
In dieser Arbeit wird das Abstimmungsverhalten der Mitglieder des Deutschen Bundestags (MdB) in der Legislatur 2017-2021 mittels Daten von www.abgeordnetenwatch.de untersucht. Insbesondere soll beantwortet werden, ob einzelne MdBs nicht identisch zu ihrer Fraktion abstimmen. Durch eine Community-Detection-Analyse wurde herausgefunden, dass solche MdBs in den Fraktionen CDU/CSU, SPD, AFD, FDP und Die Linke existieren. Die betroffenen Mitglieder der Fraktionen CDU/CSU und SPD stimmen oft entgegen der Fraktionslinie mit MdBs anderer Parteien ab.
Winter 2020¶
Homophily and transitivity matter for Free Trade Agreements
Josef Möschl
This work investigates whether transitivity and homophily are drivers of free trade agreements (FTA) network formation. Using data from the WTO’s Regional Trade Agreements Database from 1960-2020, we find strong empirical evidence that the formation of the FTA network is influenced by both factors. We investigate evidence for homophiliy and transitivity using both basic social network analysis techniques as well as the exponential random graph (ERG) model.
Gefahr für den Wettbewerb? – Starke Verflechtungen deutscher Immobilienunternehmen durch Großinvestoren
Sebastian van Kann
In dieser Arbeit werden diese Eigentumsverschränkungen zwischen Unternehmen des DAX und des MDAX im Rahmen einer Netzwerkanalyse genauer untersucht. Konkret soll die Frage beantwortet werden, wie sich die Unternehmensbeteiligungen institutioneller Investoren auf die brancheninternen Unternehmensnetzwerke im DAX und MDAX auswirken.
Previous terms @ TUM¶
How is the US drug problem reflected in music?
Ilias Papadimitrou, Julien Deligny, Mario Amah
Drug addiction is one of the greatest social troubles that modern societies struggle with, and especially in the United States, the percentage of drug abuse is constantly rising. It is said that music is one of the things that affect young people the most, even subconsciously when listening to music in the background. By observing the US charts of the last three decades, we wanted to analyze the evolution of drug and alcohol use referenced in music. Are drugs and alcohol more present in today’s chart music? If yes, to what extent? Are the drugs mentioned changing over time?
Evolution of Heterogeneity as an Indicator of Diversity in the US Movie Industry
Mario Anderhub, Torsten Müller, David Sieffert
Feature films reflect and influence society. They are a cultural artifact. In this paper, we address the question of the extent to which the social trend toward diversity and inclusion is made visible in the film industry. To this end, we ask ourselves the question: How did the composition of movie casts change in terms of gender, age and origin and is the societal trend towards more diversity reflected on movie sets? We collected data about movies and actors from The Movie Database, instantiated a movie collaboration network, and analyzed the network in terms of diversity and heterogeneity of dyads.
I support LGBTQ+ - Where Am I Going to Make More Friends
Rossen Boykov, Ata Mazloumian
Being openly gay or in support of gay communities is a polarizing modern day issue. There are many factors that can affect this, like religion, political views and so on. Music is one of the most popular ways for young people to socialize, that's why we wanted to see if being a part of a minority group can negatively impact your social life.