Complexity: From Simple Rules to Complex Behavior
What do infectious disease outbreaks, misinformation, the brain, and forest fires all have in common? They are systems composed of many interacting individual parts leading to complicated collective behavior - they are all complex systems! If you are interested in learning the concepts as well as the quantitative and computational methods used to study and model complex systems this is the right course for you. There are no prerequisites, just bring your curiosity and critical thinking skills, we will provide an introduction to any necessary coding or mathematical methods for those new to the area.
The course will be structured around three different modules: "Fundamental properties of complex systems", "Modelling complex systems", and "Complex systems in practice". Check below what you will learn in each of them, and refer to the Syllabus for details.
1. Fundamental properties of complex systems
What makes a system a complex system? In the introductory part of this course, we will explore the many properties shared among seemingly completely different complex systems. We will focus particularly on emergence, which occurs when a system exhibits a collective behavior that its individual parts do not have on their own.
2. Modeling complex systems
The study of complex systems requires the help of a powerful toolbox containing techniques and concepts borrowed from math, physics, sociology, computer science, data science, and beyond. In this module, we will learn more about the necessary tools to model complex systems. Some examples include agent-based models, cellular automata, and networks.
3. Complex systems in practice
In the final part of the course, we will apply all the concepts and methods learned in the previous modules to investigate real-life complex systems. Our case studies will range from financial markets and political systems to artificial intelligence and global climate.
Fun fact: all the images in this website where generated by AI, which you will have a chance to learn about if you take this class!