First Networking Event in Complexity

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First Networking Event in Complexity
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Plan of the morning

• What are complex systems?
• Geoff, Fernand, Mark and Barry.
• Complexity discussions and feedback.
• Lunch

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How would I define a complex system?

• Systems with a large number of components that
  interact to produce interesting behaviour.
• (If this is a good definition, then everything I
  do is complex systems research, and I am a
  complexity scientist.)
• Theoretical physicists (and the EPSRC) usually
  say that complex systems are composed of
  inter-related, adaptive elements that together
  produce emergent properties.

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• University of Michigan, Centre for the Study of
  Complex
• Systems Call a system complex if it exhibits
• a number of the following properties
• Agent based
• Dynamic
• Heterogeneous
• Feedback
• Organisation
• Emergence

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European Complex Systems Society

• Legitimate to have doubts about complex systems
• as a discipline
• Imre Kondor, founder of ECSS
• Interests of members
• Agent-based social simulation, agriculture, art,
  artificial intelligence, anthropology, biology,
  building science, chemistry, climate change,
  cognitive science, design, defence, dynamical
  systems and applications, epistemology,
  economics, econophysics, ethnography, evolution,
  extreme events, genetics, geography, health
  provision, history, international relations,
  management, manufacturing, marketing,
  mathematics, languages, linguistics, philosophy,
  planning, psychology, robotics, network theory,
  neuroscience, political science, research
  methods, sociology, sociology of scientific
  knowledge and science policy, sociology of the
  environment, software development, terrorism,
  traffic planning, welfare planning.

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Group Task

• Describe your research interests to one another.
• Attempt to characterise one anothers research in
  terms of the complexity attributes
• Agent based
• Dynamic
• Heterogeneous
• Feedback
• Organisation
• Emergence
• Look for similarities, differences, identify
  common approaches or methodologies,
  opportunities, collaborations etc