MAGICS Lab

Multi-AGent Intelligent Complex Systems

Northeastern University · College of Engineering

Our Research Meet the Team

Our Mission

Modern engineered systems are increasingly connected, with complex interactions among social and technical aspects, both during the design process and after fielding. While traditional engineering design has focused on designing an optimal technical artifact, there is an increasing recognition that social and organizational aspects of how designers collaborate and create, and how systems co-evolve with the human and built environments through use, are equally important drivers of value. Additionally, the rise of new sources of data and increased availability thereof creates many opportunities to extend design research into the sociotechnical realm.

Multi-Agent Intelligent Complex Complex Systems Theory Engineering Design Governance & Policy

Lab News

  • 2026
  • Preprint Under Review

    "The Architecture of Illusion: Network Opacity and Strategic Escalation"

    R Ebrahimi, S Ilami, B Heydari, I Trevino, M Franceschetti

  • Preprint Under Review

    "Communication Enhances LLMs' Stability in Strategic Thinking"

    N Lorè, B Heydari

  • Publication

    "Adaptive Information Modulation: Designing Governance Mechanisms for Multi-Agent AI Systems"

    Q Chen, S Ilami, N Lorè, B Heydari · Journal of Mechanical Design

  • Publication

    "Architecting adaptive networks: Reinforcement learning with generative policies for multi-agent governance"

    Q Chen, B Heydari · Journal of Mechanical Design, 148(1), 011701

  • 2025
  • Lab

    🎉 Congratulations to Nunzio Lorè for successfully defending his PhD!

  • Lab

    🎉 Congratulations to Qiliang Chen for successfully defending his PhD!

  • Media

    Our paper on strategic behavior of LLM agents was covered by Scientific American article on AI alignment.

  • Publication

    "Extreme Design: An Editorial on a New Research Framework Within Engineering Design"

    T Marion, M Yang, A Banzaert, K Becker, E Brubaker, R Bruggeman, ... · Journal of Mechanical Design, 147(12), 120301

  • Preprint Under Review

    "Network Topology Matters, But Not Always: Mobility Networks in Epidemic Forecasting"

    S Ilami, Q Cao, B Heydari

  • Publication

    "Core or periphery: Examining where to allocate heterogeneous inventors and the impact on firms' innovation"

    B Heydari, S Chattopadhyay, S Padhee, S Karim · Strategic Management Journal

  • Publication

    "Generative Network Design for Multi-Agent Coordination: A VAE-Assisted Deep RL Approach"

    Q Chen, B Heydari · ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 147

  • Preprint Under Review

    "Evolution of Innovation in Technology Life cycle: Isolating Innovation Legacy from Quality"

    S Padhee, B Heydari

  • Publication

    "Networks and Graphs for Engineering Systems and Design"

    Z Sha, A Layton, B Heydari, DL Van Bossuyt · Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, 25(6), 060301

  • Publication

    "Adaptive network intervention for complex systems: A hierarchical graph reinforcement learning approach"

    Q Chen, B Heydari · Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, 25(6), 061006

  • Preprint Under Review

    "Competing for Attention: Explainable Deep Reinforcement Learning for Behavior-Aware Recommendations"

    Q Cao, Q Chen, B Heydari

  • Preprint

    "Collective Artificial Intelligence: Specialist-Generalist Network Structures & Task Performance"

    J Meluso, L Hébert-Dufresne, B Heydari, C Riedl, HO Gao

  • Publication

    "Networks and Graphs for Engineering Systems and Design"

    B Heydari, DL Van Bossuyt

  • Preprint Under Review

    "The Shifting Dynamics of Online Knowledge Platforms and the Implications for Generative AI Sustainability"

    B Heydari, N Maddah

  • 2024
  • Lab

    🎉 Congratulations to Sepehr Ilami for passing his PhD Qualifying Exam!

  • Publication

    "Platform-Driven Collaboration Patterns: Structural Evolution Over Time and Scale"

    N Maddah, B Heydari · IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, 11(6), 7814–7829

  • Preprint Under Review

    "Integrated Design and Governance of Agentic AI Systems through Adaptive Information Modulation"

    Q Chen, S Ilami, N Lorè, B Heydari

  • Preprint Under Review

    "Large model strategic thinking, small model efficiency: transferring theory of mind in large language models"

    N Lorè, S Ilami, B Heydari

  • Grant

    Professor Heydari is a PI of a new NSF grant — "IHBEM: No One Lives in a Bubble: Incorporating Group Dynamics into Epidemic Models" (Award #2421289).

  • Publication

    "Strategic behavior of large language models and the role of game structure versus contextual framing"

    N Lorè, B Heydari · Scientific Reports, 14(1), 18490

  • 2023
  • Lab

    Welcome to new lab member: Sepehr Ilami! 👋

  • Lab

    🎉 Congratulations to Qingtao Cao for successfully defending his PhD!

  • Lab

    🎉 Congratulations to Soumyakant Padhee for successfully defending his PhD!

  • Lab

    🎉 Congratulations to Negin Maddah for passing her PhD Qualifying Exam!

Research and Publications

MAGICS Research Areas

Connected Minds: Network-Mediated Strategic Reasoning

We develop the Connected Minds framework to study how network structure and information visibility shape strategic reasoning. By introducing a locality parameter that controls whether agents behave like myopic local observers or globally informed reasoners, we connect Level-k and Cognitive Hierarchy models within one unified framework and show how transparency can be used as a mechanism-design lever.

Ebrahimi, R., Ilami, S., Heydari, B., Trevino, I., & Franceschetti, M. (2026). The Architecture of Illusion: Network Opacity and Strategic Escalation. arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.10053.

Paper

Fine-Tuning Small LLMs for Strategic Decision-Making

We study whether smaller language models can inherit strategic reasoning capabilities from larger models through fine-tuning. Using game-theoretic social dilemmas across multiple contexts, we show that a fine-tuned small model can better reproduce the decisions and reasoning patterns of a much larger model, while remaining far more computationally efficient.

Lore, N., Ilami, S., & Heydari, B. (2024). Large model strategic thinking, small model efficiency: transferring theory of mind in large language models. arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.05241.

Paper

Adaptive Information Governance in Multi-Agent AI Systems

We build a governance framework for multi-agent sociotechnical systems in which an RL-based manager dynamically controls what information each LLM agent can access over time. Rather than changing payoffs or hard-coding rules, the system steers collective behavior through adaptive information signals, improving cooperation while preserving agent autonomy in repeated strategic settings.

Chen, Q., Ilami, S., Lore, N., and Heydari, B. (March 9, 2026). Adaptive Information Modulation: Designing Governance Mechanisms for Multi-Agent Artificial Intelligence Systems. ASME. J. Mech. Des. April 2026; 148(4): 041708. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4070755

Paper

Mobility Networks and Epidemic Forecasting

We examine when behavioral network data meaningfully improve forecasting accuracy in computational social systems. Using smartphone-derived mobility networks and town-level COVID-19 outcomes in Massachusetts, we show that mobility features provide major predictive gains when primary surveillance is weak, but add only limited value when strong autoregressive case-history signals are already available.

Ilami, S., Cao, Q., & Heydari, B. (2025). Network Topology Matters, But Not Always: Mobility Networks in Epidemic Forecasting. arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.20025.

Paper

Selected Publications

Publication list coming soon. Visit our Google Scholar page for the latest.

Team Members

Current Lab Members

Negin Maddah

Negin Maddah

(PhD Student)

Research Interests:
Complex Networks, Computational Social Science, Intelligent SocioTechnical Systems, Process Mining

Sepehr Ilami

Sepehr Ilami

(PhD Student)

Research Interests:
Computational Social Science, Multi-Agent Systems, AI Agents, Strategic Decision-Making, Human Mobility, Social Contagion, Norm Emergence

Hongan Zhu

Hongan Zhu

(MSc Student)

Research Interests:
Complex Systems, Network Science, Computational Methods

?

You!

(Future Lab Member)

Curious, driven, and ready to explore?
We're looking for the next great mind to join our team. That could be you — bring your ideas and let's shape the future together!

Get in touch →

Past Team Members

Alumni

Nunzio Lorè

Nunzio Lorè

(PhD Student)

Research Interests:
LLM Strategic Decision Making, Multi-LLM Interaction and Communication, Theory of Mind

First job after graduation:
Research Fellow @ CyberCat Institute

Qiliang Chen

Qiliang Chen

(PhD Student)

Research Interests:
Artificial Intelligence, Reinforcement Learning, Complex Systems, Multi-Agent Systems

First job after graduation:
AI Agent Engineer @ CMG Research Lab

Gabri Ansaldo

Gabri Ansaldo

(MSc Student)

Research Interests:
World and Behavioural Simulations

First job after graduation:
Product Manager @ Motorola Solutions

Qingtao Cao

Qingtao Cao

(PhD Student)

Research Interests:
Sociotechnical Systems Modeling, Data Science, Network Science, Explainable Artificial Intelligence

First job after graduation:
Senior Data Scientist @ Saint-Gobain Research North America

Soumyakant Padhee

Soumyakant Padhee

(PhD Student)

Research Interests:
Collective Intelligence, Socio-Technical Systems, Experimental Game Theory, Data Science in OM

First job after graduation:
Assistant Professor, College of Business & Economics, Lenoir-Rhyne University, Hickory, North Carolina

Lab Director

Babak Heydari

Associate Professor · Northeastern University

Prof. Heydari is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of computing, economics and behavioral sciences, and systems engineering. He is a tenured associate professor in Northeastern University's College of Engineering, with affiliations at the Network Science Institute, Institute of Experiential AI, and School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. He received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, with a minor in economics and management sciences, and a graduate certificate from Haas Business School. His undergraduate studies combined electrical engineering and chemistry at Sharif University. Before becoming a faculty, he was working in Silicon Valley as an entrepreneur and an RF/mm-wave chip designer.

His research focuses on computational modeling of complex sociotechnical systems to inform engineering design and policy interventions. He has applied this approach to diverse domains, including Human-AI integration and collective intelligence, platform systems, behavioral epidemic modeling and public health, organizational teamwork, system resilience, and systems engineering problems such as distributed satellite system architecture. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation (including a CAREER award), DARPA, IARPA, and private corporations. He has published in general science journals as well as top-tier venues across systems engineering, public policy, economics, social sciences, electrical engineering, and computing. His research has been featured in media outlets such as Wired, the Boston Globe, and the New York Times.

In addition to his research, he is deeply committed to academic service. Since 2020, he has served as the program lead and director for the Engineering Management program at Northeastern. From 2020 to 2023, he was President of the Council of Engineering Systems Scholars and Universities (CESUN), a spin-off of MIT's Engineering Systems Division, which focuses on technical and policy design for complex sociotechnical systems. He has also been chairing the Scientific Advisory Committee of Future Resilient Systems since 2020, a large-scale 10-year joint initiative between ETH Zurich and the government of Singapore.

Current Appointments

  • ›Associate Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
  • ›Affiliated Faculty, Network Science Institute
  • ›Affiliate Faculty, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs

Education

  • ›University of California, Berkeley — PhD in Electrical Engineering and PhD Minor in Economics and Management
  • ›University of California, Berkeley — Masters of Science Electrical Engineering
Google Scholar Faculty Profile

Contact

b.heydari@northeastern.edu
177 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA

Join Us

Information for Prospective Students and Postdocs

Thanks for checking us out! We're always excited to meet curious, driven people who want to do meaningful research. Whether you're a postdoc or undergrad, we'd love to hear from you. Take a look below and don't hesitate to reach out.

PhD Students & Postdocs

We'd love to hear from you! Drop an email to Prof. Heydari with the following subject line format:

Prospective PhD Student – [Your Name] – [Target Semester, e.g., Fall 2027]

Prospective Postdoc – [Your Name] – [Target Start Date]

Attach your CV and tell us a bit about yourself—what excites you about our research, how it connects to your goals, and what skills or perspectives you'd bring to the team. We value curiosity and diverse backgrounds, so don't be shy!

Masters Students

If you are currently doing your Masters at Northeastern University and looking to do your Masters project or thesis with us, please send an email to Prof. Heydari with the following subject line format:

Prospective Masters Student – [Your Name] – [Project / Thesis] – [Target Semester, e.g., Fall 2027]

Include your CV, your coursework at NU (with grades), any coding or data experience you have, and the research areas that get you excited. We're happy to chat about finding the right fit. If you are a Masters student at another institution and interested in doing a thesis project with us, please reach out as well! We can discuss potential collaboration or co-advising arrangements. Please make sure to mention your current institution in the title of the email.

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate students are also welcome! If you're curious about interdisciplinary research at the intersection of engineering and social sciences, we'd love to have you on board. Reach out to Prof. Heydari with the following subject line format:

Prospective Undergraduate Researcher – [Your Name] – [Target Semester, e.g., Fall 2027]

Tell us a little about yourself—your background, relevant coursework, and which of our research areas spark your interest. We're excited to hear from you!