ISI Foundation increasingly uses digital media and computational devices in daily activities, and leaves behind a sizable amount of digital traces while doing so. The proliferation of mobile devices, and the incorporation of various sensing technologies in these devices, will further add to this growing trail of data. The possibility to mine and analyze these data, and the scale at which this can be done on contemporary computer systems, affords a novel, data-driven approach in the investigation of various aspects of human behavior.

SocioPatterns is an interdisciplinary research collaboration that adopts this data-driven methodology with the aim of uncovering fundamental patterns in social dynamics and coordinated human activity.

To achieve its scientific goals, the SocioPatterns collaboration also contributes to the development of new technologies for collecting relevant data. In particular, the collaboration supports the development of the SocioPatterns sensing platform, which uses wireless wearable sensors to gather longitudinal data on human mobility and face-to-face proximity in real-world environments. The SocioPatterns team also works on developing tools and techniques to represent, analyze and visualize the collected data.