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Research Groups and Projects
The following is a list of CSCS research groups, both active and inactive. Please click on the title for further information about each project.
Analysis of Hydrogen Fuel Production
Principal Investigators: Carl Simon, Rick Riolo
Source of Funding: U.S. Department of Energy
CSCS is collaborating with a group of partners including Argonne National Laboratories, Ford Motor Company, the World Resources Institute and the University of California-Davis, among others on a project that is analyzing the development of hydrogen fuel production. This project is exploring the hydrogen infrastructure's development as a complex adaptive system using an agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) technique.
Bilingualism, Linguistic Knowledge and Emergence: A Computational Prototype
Principal Investigators: Teresa Satterfield, Rick Riolo
Source of Funding: University of Michigan Office of the Vice-President for Research (OVPR)
This project is constructing a computational prototype for the
development of bilingualism. The model will simulate particular
linguistic processes in order to understand what bilingual first
language-acquisition-related properties are generated by the dynamics
of the modeled processes.
Complex Systems Advanced Academic Workshop (CSAAW)
Coordinators: Rick Riolo and Derek Robinson/Greg Sawicki (2005/6);
Sarah Cobey and Debra Hevenstone (2006/7)
Source of Funding: UM Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop grant
The goal of CSAAW is to support students who are writing dissertations
that involve the interdisciplinary ideas and techniques of complex
systems research. Through a series of regular meetings, students will
discuss their own work and receive feedback from other students,
faculty and researchers. Other meetings will consist of talks by and
discussions with invited speakers who are active in complex systems
research. These speakers, many of whom will be recent graduates, will
discuss their own work, provide advice on how to successfully complete
a complex systems (interdisciplinary) dissertation, and how to
navigate through the post-graduate job market.
[more information]
Complex Systems Reading Group (CSRG)
The Complex Systems Reading Group (CSRG) consists of graduate students
and faculty with a special interest in complex systems. In the Fall/Winter terms,
CSRG meets every
week on Tuesday evenings at 7:00PM at Amer's Deli at 611 Church Street
(across from Pizza House). Paper recommendations are accepted from
participants and selected each week for discussion.
In the summer term, CSRG meets at 4:00pm Tuesdays (typically at Dominick's).
To be added to the reading group's e-mail list, please contact Aaron Bramson at
bramson@umich.edu.
[more information]
Computational Models for Belief Revision, Group Decisions and Cultural Shifts
Principal Investigators: Scott Page, Jenna Bednar
Source of Funding: U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research
This project, in collaboration with a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is developing and comparing a variety of computational models, grounded in previous and future studies of cultural differences. The aim of the models is to predict intent and patterns of behavior, given new concepts. A further objective is to study the dynamics of the different models, when perturbed by unexpected external forces that put pressure on existing belief structures. Although much of the modeling will be through simulations, some grounding will be possible using either lab-based mockups, data currently available or anticipated and media reports that trigger reactions among elements of a population.
Genre Evolution Project
Principal Investigators: Eric Rabkin, Carl Simon
The Genre Evolution Project is testing the hypothesis that cultural creations evolve in the same way as biological organisms, that is, as complex adaptive systems that succeed or fail according to their fitness to their environment and, by their existence and success, modify their environment. The project presents many challenges.
- How does one define the key characteristics of a cultural creation?
- How does one define the key components of the cultural environment?
- How does one test hypotheses in cultural evolution?
For more information, please visit http://www.umich.edu/~genreevo/
Modeling Fish Life History
Principal Investigators: Bobbi Low, Carl Simon
This group, in collaboration with a research team from Michigan State University, is exploring the spawning patterns of salmon.
Modeling Technical Innovation in Automobiles
Principal Investigators: Carl Simon
Source of Funding: Ford Motor Company
The goal of this project is to construct a forecasting model that captures the details of the automotive market such that the model can be used as a framework for Ford technology investment decisions. The research will focus specifically on hybrid vehicle market growth and dynamics but will also develop general principles and methods applicable to other emerging technologies such as the impact of computers and computing or the future of all-electric vehicles. This research is a new application of leading-edge computer-based simulation and systems dynamics models, and integration of these methods with an enterprise model under development.
Modeling Infectious Diseases
Principal Investigators: Carl Simon, Betsy Foxman, Jim Koopman, Denise Kirschner, Patrick Nelson, Trachette Jackson and Len Sander
Sources of Funding: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
A number of research teams are using complex systems approaches to study the spread of infection. One, led by Jim Koopman and Carl Simon, is taking a systems approach to developing the science of the spread of infections (like HIV, flu and SARS) through populations. Two teams, one led by Denise Kirschner and another by Patrick Nelson and Trachette Jackson, are studying these infections at the cellular level. A team led by Betsy Foxman is studying the evolution of bacterial drug resistance. Another led by Len Sander is comparing stochastic and deterministic approaches to modeling disease spread.
Networks and Contagion among People and Computers
Principal Investigator: Mark Newman
Source of Funding: James S. McDonnell Foundation
This group is conducting an empirical investigation of networks including networks of physical contacts between individuals by which disease spreads and the social network of contacts between computer users by which computer viruses spread.
For more information about the Networks project, please visit Mark Newman's web site.
Project Diversity
Principal Investigator: Scott Page
Source of Funding: James S. McDonnell Foundation
This team is developing general theories of diverse systems that cut across traditional boundaries. The project also supports an advanced undergraduate course called "Theories of Diversity" in which students apply ideas from game theory, network theory and ecology to diversity-related issues ranging from concerns of U.S. cultural hegemony to the preservation of species. The project sponsored a major symposium on diversity in November 2005.
[more information]
Project SCRAM (Simulation of Closed Regimes Using Agent-Based Modeling)
Principal Investigators: Rick Riolo, Ravi Bhavnani, David Backer
Source of Funding: U.S. Dept. of Defense
This research group is building and studying agent-based models that simulate decision-making processes in closed political regimes (including Syria, North Korea and Iran).
The following article to be published in an upcoming CSCS newsletter summarizes their work.
Although Dept. of Defense support for Project SCRAM has ended, the research is continuing. For more information, please contact the principal investigators.
Project SLUCE (Spatial Land Use Change and Ecological Effects at the Rural-Urban Interface)
Principal Investigators: Dan Brown, Scott Page, Rick Riolo
Source of Funding: National Science Foundation' s Biocomplexity Program
This team is exploring spatial land use change and ecological effects at the rural-urban interface (SLUCE). Project SLUCE is constructing both agent-based models and simple mathematical models to understand the social and landscape dynamics within an urban system and to project patterns of ecological change at the urban-rural fringe.
[more information]
Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility
Principal Investigators: Carl Simon, Tom Gladwin, John Sullivan
Sources of Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF), Ford Motor Company, UM Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society
This research group is using complexity science in an interdisciplinary study of the transformational dynamics of sustainable mobility and accessibility. A major conference in June 2003, funded by NSF and the Ford Motor Company, brought together transportation and complexity researchers from academia, industry, government and NGOs. The conference helped launch an ongoing project that is attempting to address the challenges of future mobility and accessibility in an ecologically sound and socially sustainable manner.
[more information]
Article about the 2003 Conference published in the Spring 2004 issue of Dividend, the journal of the University of Michigan School of Business.
Updated February 18, 2006
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