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Congressional Briefing Examines Threats & Vulnerabilities of Interconnected Systems
On June 13, 2019, the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) held a joint Congressional briefing entitled "Addressing Threats and Vulnerabilities in Critical Interconnected Systems: Common Principles in Disease Outbreaks, Internet Malware, and Bank Failures." This Capitol Hill briefing was given by Dr. Jon M. Kleinberg, Cornell University.
Kleinberg explained to Congressional staff and other attendees that a vital feature of many critical systems in society is their connectivity -- they are built from large numbers of components linked together in a network. This structure makes it possible to build them at large scales, but it also puts them at risk of cascading breakdowns, when a problem in one component spreads to others. We can look at mathematical models originally developed for epidemic diseases, where a small change in the connectivity of the population or the infectiousness of the disease can lead to large changes in the reach of the outbreak. We then can consider how these models apply when developing detection techniques and countermeasures for risks to highly interconnected systems, including malware on the Internet and failures in banking systems.
See Dr. Kleinberg's presentation slides here and you can read more about the briefing in this article from Cornell University.
Dr. Jon M. Kleinberg is the Tisch University Professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University. His research focuses on the interaction of algorithms and networks, and the roles they play in large-scale social and information systems. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and has served on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Research Council and the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation. He is the recipient of the ACM Prize in Computing and the Nevanlinna Prize from the International Mathematical Union.
Other Congressional Briefings:
Beginning in 2017, the AMS is partnering with MSRI to organize and host bi-annual briefings; prior to 2017, the AMS hosted annual briefings.
December 2014, "The Future of Mathematics: Education & Innovation" presented by Robert Ghrist, Andrea Mitchell University Professor of Mathematics and Electrical/Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
September 2008, "Can Mathematics Cure Leukemia?" presented by Doron Levy, associate professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, College Park.
November 2005, "From Katrina Forward: How Mathematics Helps Predict Storm Surges", presented by Clint Dawson, professor at the University of Texas and a member of the Center for Subsurface Modeling in the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences; and James Westerink, associate professor of civil engineering and geological sciences at the University of Notre Dame.
September 2004, "Homeland Security: What Can Mathematics Do?" presented by Fred Roberts, professor of mathematics and director of the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) at Rutgers University.
July 2001, "Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics", a briefing on this National Research Council Report presented by Deborah Loewenberg Ball and Hyman Bass, University of Michigan and by Roger Howe, Yale University.
Other previous briefings include:
What Does Water Know About Mathematics, by Mary Fannett Wheeler, The University of Texas at Austin
Calculating the Secrets of Life: Mathematics in Medicine by DeWitt Sumners, Florida State University
Eavesdropping on the Internet: Mathematics and Policy by Carl Pomerance, University of Georgia
Mathematical Transcriptions of the Real World: Fingerprints, Magnetic Resonance and Video by Ronald Coifman, Yale University