text: The Institute of Mathematics and its Analysis in association with Cafe Scientifique have organised an event at 7pm on Monday 2 November at the Victorian Bar, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, G1 5HB.
  Des Higham will speak about a mathematician’s perspective on ‘Big Data, networks and the Internet of things”
  Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology.
  The “Internet of Things” is a phrase describing the set of technologies, systems and methodologies that underpin the spread of internet-enabled applications. Ultimately, the Internet of Things should involve physical objects seamlessly integrating into the information network for social and economic benefit.
  At the heart of the Internet of Things is data—digital records of human, technological and natural interactions. The data streams are large-scale, varied and rapidly changing. Making sense of this data raises many interesting challenges for those of us working in mathematics, statistics, computer science and related disciplines. I therefore plan to discuss some of our success stories, bottlenecks and wish list entries. Along the way, I will mention how Google used classical graph theory in order to tame the WWW, how new ideas in network science allow us to rank supermarkets according to on-line brand allegiance and how we can compare the cliquiness of ten UK cities.