Gain new insights that reframe your thinking, specific tools to advance current projects, and perspectives to set new directions.

October 18 – November 18

Course access begins October 18

Participants will have access to over a dozen hours of content which they can work through at their own pace. Live Q&A sessions with NECSI President, Prof. Yaneer Bar-Yam will also be included.

This course provides an introduction to essential concepts of complex systems and related mathematical methods and simulation strategies with application to physical, biological and social systems.

Concepts to be covered include: emergence, complexity, networks, self-organization, pattern formation, evolution, adaptation, fractals, chaos, cooperation, competition, attractors, interdependence, scaling, dynamic response, information and function.

Methods to be covered include: statistical methods, cellular automata, agent-based modeling, pattern recognition, system representation and informatics.

Demonstration of the application of complex systems methods will be made through studies of:

• Social systems: education system, health care system, military system

• Psychosocial systems: patterns of social behavior, mind, creativity

• Biological systems: physiology, brain, cellular systems, genetic networks

• Physical systems: meteorology