One-Day Course: Introduction to Complex Systems

Sunday, March 25, 2001

Open Conference on Recent Results in Complex Systems

Monday, March 26, 2001

University of California, Irvine

Co-Sponsors:

• The Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science,
  University of California, Irvine
• New England Complex Systems Institute

Course Description

A one day course, Introduction to Complex Systems, will be offered on Sunday, March 25, 2001. This course will give an introduction to the opportunities that complex systems provides in research and in applications. Several approaches to the study of complex systems will be described, basic concepts will be introduced and implications for the study of biological, social and engineered systems will be discussed.

Time and Location

8:45 AM - 4:30 PM on Sunday, March 25, 2001
University of California, Irvine

Tuition

UCI students and faculty attend free.
Other students $50, other faculty $150.
Registration required. Space is limited.

Topics

Lectures and discussions will focus on the following topics:

1. Universality and the unified study of complex systems: Examples of complex systems: physical, biological, social and engineered. The basic concepts: emergence, complexity, evolution, relationships, observer, environment.
2. Interactions and Patterns: Patterns of behavior and the inadequacy of averages: influence, interdependence, cooperation, competition, networks, adaptation / evolution.
3. Description: Complexity, emergence and the multi-scale perspective in description.
4. Modeling: The role of models and modeling; mental and computer-based models; intuitive and fundamental modeling; building, testing and using models; modeling strategies and tactics.
5. Applications: Beyond scientific applications: Medicine, Management, Engineering, Education, and Social services.
6. Complex systems in arts and humanities, the blurring/merging of analytic and affective views.

Special Speaker: Charles DeLisi
Sunday evening, March 25, 2001

As Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) health and environmental research programs in the 1980s Charles DeLisi was instrumental in initiating and planning the early phases of the Human Genome Project. In January, 2001, he received the Presidential Citizen's medal from President Clinton. The citation reads: "A pioneer and visionary, biophysicist Dr. Charles DeLisi has profoundly increased our knowledge about the building blocks of life. The first government scientist to outline the feasibility, goals, and parameters of the Human Genome Project, he helped to galvanize an international team of researchers to pool resources, create new technologies, and launch the monumental task of gene mapping and sequencing." DeLisi is currently Arthur G.B. Metcalf Professor of Science and Engineering at Boston University and Director of the All University Doctoral Program in Bioinformatics.

We are also sponsoring on the following day an

Open Conference on Recent Results in Complex Systems

Monday, March 26, 2001
University of California, Irvine

This is an open conference in which participants can present their recent research results. Individual presentations will be assigned 15 or 30 minutes. All complex systems related subjects are welcome. Short abstracts of no more than 100 words should be sent by registered participants to abstracts@necsi.org (no attachments).

Registration

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