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CSCS Curriculum and Graduate Certificate Requirements

The CSCS Graduate Certificate Program requirements listed on this page reflect the experience we and our students have gained after the first few years of the program. The goals of the CSCS certificate program requirements include:

1. Students should be familiar with a minimal set of concepts and terms, some list of key people, models, and basic "complex systems phenomena." Among other things, this will serve as part of a common "language" and a basis for students to interact in meaningful ways.

2. Students should have basic math and computer modeling skills, so that they:
   - understand the uses and limits of these approaches;
   - can implement their own simple models; and
   - can understand at some minimal level 90% of the CSCS seminars.

3. Students should have more advanced skills/knowledge is some area, e.g., dynamical systems, computer modeling, or other approaches to complex systems modeling, perhaps as applied to a particular domain.

4. Overall, students should gain an appreciation for and skills at applying a complex systems approach to understanding both their own and other fields of study.

5. Promote and maintain a sense of community among students.

Students must take five courses, including the Group A course, the Group C course and at least one course from Group D for a total of 15 to 19 credits. Within Group D, students with weaker mathematics backgrounds should take CMPLXSYS 510; students with stronger math backgrounds should take CMPLXSYS 520 or 541. It is possible to replace the Group D course with an equivalent advanced dynamical systems course or, in very special circumstances, to replace the Group C course with an equivalent course but every student must take at least one of CMPLXSYS 510 or CMPLXSYS 530. The courses in Group B represent the minimal programming and calculus background required for the courses in Groups C and D; we anticipate that most students will not need to take these courses. They do not count toward the five courses in the certificate program.

Group A

• CSCS 501: Basic Readings in Complex Systems

Group B

• CSCS 531 (Short course) Introduction to Programming Agent-Based Models
  This is a 1 credit course.
• PUBPOL 513/SPP 513: Calculus for Social Science

Group C

• CSCS 530: Computer Modeling of Complex Systems

Group D

• CMPLXSYS 510/Math 550: Introduction to Dynamical Systems for Complex Systems and the Life Sciences. (3 credits--revised and lengthened from its current format to include an introduction to material in CSCS 520 and 541.)
  
• CMPLXSYS 541/Phys 413: Physics of Complexity (3 credits)
  
• CMPLXSYS 520/Phys 580: Empirical Analysis of Nonlinear Systems (3 credits)
  
• CMPLXSYS 535/Phys 508: Network Theory (3 credits)
  
• CMPLXSYS 511: Theory of Complex Systems (3 credits)
  
• CMPLXSYS 608: Network Theory of Complex Systems (3 credits)
  

Group E

• Courses related to Complex Systems and approved for the certificate program by the CSCS Director. Click here for the courses listed by semester.
  The following is a comprehensive list of all approved related courses:
  
• EECS 492: Intro to Artificial Intelligence
  
• EECS 547/SI 652: Electronic Commerce
  
• EECS 587: Parallel Computing
  
• EECS 598: Control of Motion in Animals and Machines
  
• EECS 695/Psych 640: Neural Models: Mechanisms of Learning
  
• Epid 802: Compartmental Model Analysis of Epidemiologic Processes
  
• CMPLXSYS 599: Independent Study of Complex Systems
  
• CMPLXSYS 899: Special Topics
  
• Math 526: Discrete State Stochastic Processes (Biological Applications)
  
• Math 654 Introduction to Mathematical Fluid Dynamic
  
• NRE 639: Does Space Matter in Natural Resources Research?
  
• Phys 510: Statistical Mechanics I
  
• Pol.Sci 793: Complexity Theory in the Social Sciences
  
• Psych 643/EECS 643: Theory of Neural Computation
  
• Psychology 749: Cognitive Functioning
  

Updated September 1, 2005