Designing algorithms for better data analysis and stronger networks

Hanghang Tong wants to help people as they go about their daily lives, do their jobs, interact with infrastructure and conduct research. Yet most of the people Tong's work benefits may never know it. Tong applies his expertise -- large-scale data mining and machine learning -- to research networks, including those involved in online social interactions, electrical power grids, infrastructure and transportation. On a smaller-scale example of networks, Tong focuses on graphs, which are people or other nodes that are linked together in varied and complex ways. Hanghang Tong, an assistant professor of computer science in Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, studies networks and how to improve them in a wide range of applications through the design of novel algorithms.