individual
What campus are you from?
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Christine Sessions, Graduate Student
Lead Presenter's Name
Christine Sessions
Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Bryan Watson
Abstract
Effective communication is a critical component of successful collaboration in group projects and team settings. However, tracking and analyzing these communications can be challenging, especially in complex, multi-member teams. This paper explores an information-theoretic approach that leverages encoding techniques and graph theory to model and monitor communication networks within a university group project. Through utilizing Shannon Entropy and applying Ecological Network Analysis techniques, this research aims to understand how an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University student project team evolves over the first semester of the project. This research aims to answer the question “Does Project COMET’s team structure evolve the same way ecosystems do, and if so, how are they similar?” Graph theory will be used to represent communication structures, identify key nodes, information bottlenecks, and interaction patterns. The goal of this work is to determine influential members and detect potential communication gaps. This research will also demonstrate an approach to measuring team communication structures quantitatively. Lastly, the student-led research project’s graph theory metrics will be compared with and contrasted against a young ecosystem and a mature ecosystem. The methods proposed may help quantify and provide insights into key performance indicators like team dynamics, collaboration efficiency, and adaptive strategies for observing information flow in team structures. In the long term, this research aims to lay the foundation for the advancement of structured communication tracking and improved teamwork in educational and professional environments.
Did this research project receive funding support from the Office of Undergraduate Research.
No
Leveraging Information Theory & Graph Theory to Monitor Communication Networks in Team Settings
Effective communication is a critical component of successful collaboration in group projects and team settings. However, tracking and analyzing these communications can be challenging, especially in complex, multi-member teams. This paper explores an information-theoretic approach that leverages encoding techniques and graph theory to model and monitor communication networks within a university group project. Through utilizing Shannon Entropy and applying Ecological Network Analysis techniques, this research aims to understand how an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University student project team evolves over the first semester of the project. This research aims to answer the question “Does Project COMET’s team structure evolve the same way ecosystems do, and if so, how are they similar?” Graph theory will be used to represent communication structures, identify key nodes, information bottlenecks, and interaction patterns. The goal of this work is to determine influential members and detect potential communication gaps. This research will also demonstrate an approach to measuring team communication structures quantitatively. Lastly, the student-led research project’s graph theory metrics will be compared with and contrasted against a young ecosystem and a mature ecosystem. The methods proposed may help quantify and provide insights into key performance indicators like team dynamics, collaboration efficiency, and adaptive strategies for observing information flow in team structures. In the long term, this research aims to lay the foundation for the advancement of structured communication tracking and improved teamwork in educational and professional environments.