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HomePageCSCS 501: An Introduction to Complex Systems -- Fall 2008Mon, Wed 4:00 - 5:30 pm Important note regarding registration:
generally with first-come-first serve within each category, but with some bias given to students who are about to graduate (and so cannot take the course in future terms). In past years, everyone who has wanted to stay in the course has been able to, even when the waiting list starts out fairly large, as people sign up now but drop before the term starts, or drop after they find out how hard the course is going to be (! ;-)), etc. So if you are interested, I recommend you get on the waitlist, come to the first class or two, and then we can see what shakes out. Goals of CSCS 501 This course covers a broad range of fundamental topics relevant to the study of complex systems. The course work involves weekly readings and discussion of papers and selections from books. The readings focus on "classics" in the complex systems literature, in order to give students a broad, general understanding for the variety of work that falls under the rubric of complex systems. Topics to be covered will include evolutionary systems, self-organized criticality, measures of complexity, approaches to modeling complex adaptive systems, and emergence. Authors to be covered include Holland, Axelrod, Kauffman, Bak, and Gell-Mann, Wolfram, Simon and many others. Final details of the syllabus of readings will be announced as the term proceeds, as some readings will be determined only after the class begins, based on the expressed interests of the participants. Some of those readings are from books we will buy. Others will be in a couple of course packs. See below for the actual syllabus for this term. Some candidate topics and readings are A few additional general CAS readings can be found here. Some historical notes about the origins of this course, as well as more details on the format of the course, are here. More details about the class are included in a handout given out at the first class. Some useful links:
email: cscs501-08f ctools.umich.edu
To get an idea of what kinds of readings are appropriate, the actual reading assignments for past terms: Classwork and grades: Grading will be based on participation in the discussions and on two papers:
Paper requirements are described here |