Defence in the field of computer science, Daniel Monsivais Velazquez, M.Sc.

Understanding human social behaviour from mobile phone communication patterns

Daniel Monsivais Velazquez, M.Sc., will defend the dissertation "Human behavioural patterns: A reality mining study" on 5 October at 13 at the Aalto University School of Science, lecture hall AS2, Maarintie 8, Espoo. The main objective of this dissertation is to study human behaviour from social interactions occurring in their mobile communication patterns. Using techniques of Data Science, a large mobile phone communication dataset is analysed, and the human social focus over the life course as well as the human sleep-wake cycles are investigated.

Communication plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of human sociality and it has been a fundamental part of our lives since ancient times. Studying the ways in which people communicate with each other reveals different important aspects of their social life, from the daily behaviour of individuals to the interaction within social networks.

Using techniques of Data Science, a large dataset consisting of billions of call-detail records from mobile phone users is analysed, and the results presented in this dissertation describe the dynamics and evolution of human social focus and human social investment over the life course. In addition, the human sleep-wake cycle is studied from the calling activity, to understand how the daily rhythm of humans develops under the simultaneous ticking of two different clocks: the biological clock synchronized to environmental factors, and the social time which is determined by the social interactions.

Dissertation press release (pdf)

Opponent: Professor Albert Diaz Guilera, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

Custos: Professor Kimmo Kaski, Aalto University School of Science, Department of Computer Science