Controlling Partially Known Networks Using Response Surfaces

The Center for Theoretical Biological Physics

PRESENTS
Seminar Speaker

Dr. Gemunu Gunaratne
Professor and Chairman
Department of Physics
University of Houston

“Controlling Partially-Known Networks Using Response Surfaces”

Abstract: Control of complex processes is a major goal of network analyses. Most approaches to control nonlinearly coupled systems require the network topology and/or network dynamics. Unfortunately, neither the full set of participating nodes nor the network topology is known for many important systems. On the other hand, system responses to perturbations are often easily measured. We show how the collection of such responses — a response surface — can be used for network control. Analyses of model systems show that response surfaces are smooth and hence can be approximated using low order polynomials. Importantly, these approximations are largely insensitive to stochastic fluctuations in data or measurement errors. They can be used to compute how a small set of nodes need to be altered in order to direct the network close to a pre-specified target state. These ideas, illustrated on a nonlinear electrical circuit, can prove useful in many contexts including in reprogramming cellular states.

Bio: Gemunu Gunaratne is the Chairman of the Department of Physics at the University of Houston. He received his doctorate from Cornell University and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago, before moving to Houston. His research background is in nonlinear physics, especially studies of dynamical invariants in chaotic motions and patterns. He has applied related ideas to a range of problems including models of osteoporosis and bone strength, fluid flows and turbulence, quantitative finance, and biological networks.