Congratulations to UW Biostatistics graduate student Jiacheng Wu who received first place in the written category of the 2017 WNAR (Western North America Region of the International Biometric Society) Student Paper Competition.
Wu’s winning paper, “Exposure, hazard, and survival analysis of diffusion on social networks” concerns the diffusion of ideas and behaviors through human societies inspired by a randomized network intervention trial conducted in Honduras that seeks to spread the practice of multivitamins intake and chlorine bleach for water purification. Multivitamins and chlorine are introduced to a small number of individuals who may also be encouraged to spread it to their network contacts.
The paper proposes a survival analysis framework to estimate the rate of diffusion, and determine factors associated with successful transmission, while accounting for the topology of the social network.
