Sinkless: A Preliminary Study of Stress Propagation in Group Project Social Networks using a Variant of the Abelian Sandpile Model

Abstract

We perform social network analysis on 53 students split over three semesters and 13 groups, using conventional measures like eigenvector centrality, betweeness centrality, and degree centrality, as well as defining a variant of the Abelian Sandpile Model (ASM) with the intention of modeling stress propagation in the college classroom. We correlate the results of these analyses with group project grades received; due to a small or poorly collected dataset, we are unable to conclude that any of these network measures relates to those grades. However, we are successful in using this dataset to define a discrete, recursive, and more generalized variant of the ASM. Abelian Sandpile Model, College Grades, Self-organized Criticality, Sinkless Sandpile Model, Social Network Analysis, Stress Propagation