My name is Mika Straka, I am a theoretical physicist from Berlin, Germany, and joined the Networks group in November 2014 as a PhD student. I obtained a Master's Degree in Physics and Astrophysics cum laude from the University of Florence with a thesis on the nonlinear dynamics and heat transport properties of the one-dimensional Fermi-Pasta-Ulam chain [1].
Currently, I am working on statistical null models for bipartite networks and their application to economic systems in collaboration with Fabio Saracco and Tiziano Squartini under the supervision of Guido Caldarelli. Our goal is to develop an unbiased projection formalism for bipartite networks [2] which reveals the statistically significant relations between nodes of the same layer. In particular, we focus on the global network of product exportations, also known as the International Trade Network, and aim for the development of sustainable development strategies based on the uncovered product relationships [3].
In general, my work involves all the aspects of data science, leading from data mining, cleaning and database management to data analysis and visualization. Nonetheless, our research still requires a good amount of analytical work and mathematical formulations.
In addition to bipartite networks and trade, I am very interested in the complex systems approach to economic and financial systems in general. I think that it can lead to well-designed computer simulations which provide valuable insight for policy and decision makers.
Software
I share code and software on Gihub, feel free to comment or fork me.
Further Reading
[4] F. Saracco, M. J. Straka, R. Di Clemente, A. Gabrielli, G. Caldarelli, T. Squartini, Inferring monopartite projections of bipartite networks: an entropy-based approach, arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.02481 (submitted Nov. 2016)