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Ph.D. student Jessica Hoffmann received second place in the INFORMS Nicholson Student Paper competition. She received the award for her recent paper "Learning Graphs from Noisy Epidemic Cascades" with her advisor, WNCG professor Constantine Caramanis.Epidemics are a powerful framework for modeling human and computer viruses, as well as influence, rumors, information and disinformation.

Currently, local utilities in the U.S. generate 12 percent more energy than they anticipate needing. Otherwise, if they experience a brownout or blackout, utility companies face heavy penalties from the government. “Most of that extra energy is going to waste,” WNCG Prof. Brian Evans states. “If utility companies had access to better information, they could predict user demand and how it evolves over the day. They could reduce energy waste by around four-to-six percent.”