Problems in large graphs (e.g., social networks, VANETs)

A number of interesting problems nowadays can be modelled by large graphs. For example, web links constitute a graph (google and the pagerank algorithm exploit properties of this graph), also facebook friendships, paper citation patterns and many more. In more technical settings, similar graphs could be used to model patterns of communication for moving vehicles setting ad hoc networks on the road (known as VANETS). In all these situations, there are several issues related to the extraction of knowledge that could be used to understand and provide good services related to the above scenarios. I am happy to discuss and shape a project in this area.