Many modern data analysis problems involve large data sets from social, biological and other networks. In these settings, traditional modeling assumptions are inappropriate; the analysis of these data must take into account the structure of relationships between the entities being measured. In fact, in many applications, the relationships between entities is the subject of primary interest. As a result, there has been increasing research developing techniques for incorporating network structures in statistics and more widely.

Network modeling is an active area of research in several domains including computer science, statistics and physics. This workshop focuses on probabilistic methods for network analysis, paying special attention to model design and computational issues of model fitting and inference. We are bringing together statistical network modeling researchers from different communities, thereby fostering collaborations and intellectual exchange. Our hope is that this will result in novel modeling approaches, diverse applications, and new research directions.

We are interested in receiving abstract submissions for presentations at this workshop; the workshop will have oral presentations and a poster session.

Of particular interest are papers that:

• introduce new network models or apply established models to novel domains;
• explore computational issues in network modeling;
• discuss shortcomings of current network modeling approaches and propose new directions for research.

We encourage authors to emphasize the probabilistic modeling aspect of their work and its relevance to the application domains under consideration.

Abstract submissions should be limited to one page. Please email your submissions to brendan.murphy@ucd.ie.

Deadline for Abstract Submissions: Friday, April 3rd, 2009.

Notification of Decision: Friday, April 10th, 2009.

The Annals of Applied Statistics is publishing a special section in 2009 with papers on the modeling of network data. Applications can be in any area of science including social networks, the study of the Internet and various forms of electronic communications, protein-protein interactions and other biological network phenomena. The editors will consider all submissions received on or before December 31, 2008 for possible inclusion. Papers submitted on January 1, 2009 or afterwards will still be considered for inclusion but the Editors cannot guarantee that reviews will be completed in time to allow for this. All papers deemed by the editors to be appropriate for AOAS will be considered for publication even after the Special Section goes to press. Manuscripts should be submitted via the Electronic Journal Managing System (EJMS).

Authors of papers selected for inclusion in this special section will be encouraged to present their papers at this Network Modeling Workshop.

For further information on the Annals of Applied Statistics webpage, and for further details and clarification regarding this special section contact Stephen E. Fienberg at fienberg@stat.cmu.edu.

The meeting will take place over three days (June 15th to 17th, 2009).

The meeting structure will presentation sessions that include:

• Annals of Applied Statistics Special Section Papers (with invited discussion)
• Contributed Papers (Oral presentation)
• Contributed Papers (Poster presentation)

The full meeting programme including abstracts is available here.

The registration fee for this workshop is &euro 150 (this includes the conference dinner, lunches, and coffee).

Funding is being sought to support the attendance of graduate students.

Deadline for Registration: Friday, May 15th, 2009.

Two accommodation options are available:

• On campus accommodation in student residences. A booking form for on campus accommodation is available here.
• Off campus accommodation in the Montrose Hotel. A booking form for this hotel is available here.