Organizing Committee
- Andrea Bertozzi
UCLA - Jeff Brantingham
UCLA - Martin Short
Georgia Tech
Abstract
This workshop is a one-week program aimed at 20-25 researchers interested in the opportunity to shape the future of research on the mathematics of crime. Small teams will come together to work on real problems with real crime and policing data provided by the Providence Police Department. Five teams will be assembled, each with a technical advisor who will share their expertise and serve as an anchor point and leader for hands-on research that will take place over the course of the week. This will be a truly hands-on experience in which groups will spend time brainstorming mathematical methods and models to approach the problem at hand, analyzing data provided, and creating code to implement ideas as necessary. There will also be research presentations from the technical advisors throughout the week, as well as closing presentations by each team to present their ideas and progress at the end of the workshop. We fully anticipate that lasting collaborations will be formed, and that work on the projects will continue after the workshop ends. The following topical problems will focus the research activities:
- Police Patrol Analysis: Police departments are increasingly adopting technologies such as GPS to track police patrols, but widespread adoption is far off. However, departments commonly track calls for service, giving brief glimpses into where officers are located at specific points in time. Can this limited data be used to estimate more detailed pictures of police distribution across the city? And, given these estimates, can we attempt to measure quantitatively the effect that patrols have on crime?
- Dynamic prediction of crime events and crime patterns: Work on this topic has greatly expanded in recent years, using statistical techniques and differential equation based methods. But, new methods of data analytics and techniques such as data assimilation may also prove promising. Can the team use historical crime records from Providence to develop new methods of predicting future crime?
- Criminal networks big and small: Criminal offending is often a solo activity, but it also can occur in a social context. Can arrest and event data as well as fragmentary information on co-offending patterns be used to infer criminal network structure and processes? Can we detect when larger criminal networks adopt formal organizational structures?
- Crowds and social unrest: Social unrest is a common occurrence, but only recently have technologies such as smartphones and social media enabled specific events to be quantitatively analyzed after the fact and potentially even predicted in real time. Can data such as geocoded social media activity be used to understand the dynamics of events such as riots, and be used to identify them as they begin to occur?
- Social media and hate: Social media, and the internet more broadly, is a tremendous platform for creativity, but it also has a dark side. Hate speech is common and hate groups are well represented and not just in the corners of the internet. Can natural language processing and other machine learning methods be used to detect and map the spread of hate speech within social media spaces?
Note: some familiarity with coding, statistics, networks/graphs, the concept of "machine learning", ordinary and partial differential equations, analysis, and numerical solving will be helpful to applicants, but not required.

Confirmed Speakers & Participants
Talks will be presented virtually or in-person as indicated in the schedule below.
- Speaker
- Poster Presenter
- Attendee
- Virtual Attendee
-
Mahesh Agarwal
University of Michigan-Dearborn
-
Scott Anderson
Washington State Dept. of Corrections
-
Alethea Barbaro
Case Western Reserve University
-
Jorge Barreras
Quantil S.A.S.
-
Jeff Brantingham
UCLA
-
Chris Browne
Cornell University
-
Cynthiaann Bryant
Hunter college
-
Haiyan Cheng
Willamette University
-
Philip Chodrow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
-
Daniel Cooney
Princeton University
-
Yifan Cui
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
-
Toby Davies
University College London
-
Stephen DeSalvo
UCLA
-
Kun Dong
Cornell University
-
Louis Ellam
University of Warwick
-
Hannah Fry
University College London
-
Marta Gonzalez
MIT
-
Blake Hunter
Claremont McKenna College
-
Zhenzhen Li
HKUST
-
David Lloyd
University of Surrey
-
Bryan Martin
University of Washington
-
Monica Moreno
Edmonton Police Service
-
Rose Nguyen
University of Washington
-
Monica Ribero
Quantil
-
Najmeh Salehi
Temple University
-
Martin Short
Georgia Tech
-
Matthew Simonson
Northeastern University
-
Stephan Sturm
WPI
-
Robin Thompson
University of Oxford
-
Chad Topaz
Macalester College
-
Yves van Gennip
University of Nottingham
-
Chuntian Wang
University of California
-
Talitha Washington
Howard University
Workshop Schedule
Monday, August 8, 2016
Time | Event | Location | Materials |
---|---|---|---|
8:30 - 8:45am EDT | Registration | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
8:55 - 9:00am EDT | Welcome Remarks | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
9:00 - 9:15am EDT | Opening Remarks | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
9:15 - 9:45am EDT | Opening Presentation 1- Crime and Policing | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
9:45 - 10:15am EDT | Opening Presentation 2- Math and Crime | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
10:15 - 10:45am EDT | Opening Presentation - Questions and Conversations | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
10:30 - 10:45am EDT | Coffee/Tea Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
10:45 - 11:30am EDT | Introduction of Project Leads | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
11:30 - 11:45am EDT | Introduction of Projects | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
11:45 - 12:00pm EDT | Project Selection | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
12:00 - 1:00pm EDT | Lunch / Free Time | ||
1:00 - 2:00pm EDT | Team Announcements, Logistics, First Meeting | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
2:00 - 2:15pm EDT | Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
2:15 - 3:45pm EDT | Team Activities | ||
3:45 - 4:00pm EDT | Coffee/Tea Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
4:00 - 5:00pm EDT | Team Activities | ||
5:00 - 6:30pm EDT | Welcome Reception | 11th Floor Collaborative Space |
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Time | Event | Location | Materials |
---|---|---|---|
8:45 - 10:15am EDT | Team Activities | ||
10:15 - 10:30am EDT | Coffee/Tea Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
10:30 - 12:00pm EDT | Team Activities | ||
12:00 - 1:30pm EDT | Lunch / Free Time | ||
1:30 - 4:15pm EDT | Team Activities | ||
4:15 - 4:30pm EDT | Coffee/Tea Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
4:30 - 5:00pm EDT | Talk 1 | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
5:00 - 5:30pm EDT | Talk 2 | 11th Floor Lecture Hall |
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Time | Event | Location | Materials |
---|---|---|---|
8:45 - 10:15am EDT | Team Activities | ||
10:15 - 10:30am EDT | Coffee/Tea Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
10:30 - 12:00pm EDT | Team Activities | ||
12:00 - 1:30pm EDT | Lunch / Free Time | ||
1:30 - 4:15pm EDT | Team Activities | ||
4:15 - 4:30pm EDT | Coffee/Tea Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
4:30 - 5:00pm EDT | Talk 3 | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
5:00 - 5:30pm EDT | Talk 4 | 11th Floor Lecture Hall |
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Time | Event | Location | Materials |
---|---|---|---|
8:45 - 10:15am EDT | Team Activities | ||
10:15 - 10:30am EDT | Coffee/Tea Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
10:30 - 12:00pm EDT | Team Activities | ||
12:00 - 1:30pm EDT | Working Lunch & Plan Report | ||
1:30 - 4:15pm EDT | Team Activities | ||
4:15 - 4:30pm EDT | Coffee/Tea Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
4:30 - 5:00pm EDT | Talk 5 | 11th Floor Lecture Hall |
Friday, August 12, 2016
Time | Event | Location | Materials |
---|---|---|---|
8:00 - 9:00am EDT | Breakfast & Report Preparation | ||
9:00 - 9:30am EDT | Report Preparation | ||
9:30 - 9:45am EDT | Coffee/Tea Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
9:45 - 11:00am EDT | Report Preparation | ||
11:00 - 12:00pm EDT | Lunch & Report Preparation | ||
12:00 - 12:30pm EDT | Team 1 Report | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
12:30 - 1:00pm EDT | Team 2 Report | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
1:00 - 1:30pm EDT | Team 3 Report | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
1:30 - 2:00pm EDT | Team 4 Report | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
2:00 - 2:30pm EDT | Team 5 Report | 11th Floor Lecture Hall | |
2:30 - 2:45pm EDT | Break | 11th Floor Collaborative Space | |
2:45 - 3:45pm EDT | Reception/Group Discussion & Law Enforcement Commentary | 11th Floor Lecture Hall |
Working Groups
Calls for Service
- David Lloyd, Team Leader (University of Surrey)
- Mahesh Agarwal (University of Michigan-Dearborn)
- Stephen DeSalvo (UCLA)
- Monica Moreno (Edmonton Police Service)
- Naratip Santitissadeekorn (University of Surrey)
- Talitha Washington (Howard University)
Crime and Mobility
- Marta Gonzalez, Team Leader (MIT)
- Haiyan Cheng (Willamette University)
- Monica Ribero (Quantil)
- Chuntain Wang (University of California)
Networks
- Chad Topaz, Team Leader (Macalester College)
- Scott Anderson (Washington State Dept. of Corrections)
- Toby Davies (University College London)
- Bryan Martin (University of Washington)
- Rose Nguyen (University of Washington)
- Stephan Sturm (WPI)
Riots
- Hannah Fry, Team Leader (University College London)
- Alethea Barbaro (Case Western Reserve University)
- Chris Browne (Cornell University)
- Cynthiaann Bryant, (Hunter college)
- Daniel Cooney (Princeton University)
- Louis Ellam (University of Warwick)
- Robin Thompson (University of Oxford)
Twitter Topic Modeling
- Blake Hunter, Team Leader (Claremont McKenna)
- Jorge Barreras (Quantil S.A.S.)
- Yifan Cui (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
- Kun Dong (Cornell University)
- Yves van Gennip (University of Nottingham)
- Zhenzhen Li (HKUST)
- Najmeh Salehi (Temple University)