The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20110305184421/http://web.cecs.pdx.edu:80/~mm/ExploringComplexityFall2009/index.html
Time : Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-3:50pm
Location: Sixth Avenue Building (SH), Room 209.
Instructor: Melanie Mitchell, FAB 120-24, (503) 725-2412, e-mail
Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:00-5:00pm, or by appointment.
Course description: This course introduces the main ideas in Complex Systems, an interdisciplinary field of research that seeks to explain how large numbers of relatively simple entities organize themselves, without the benefit of any central controller, acting collectively to create patterns, use information, and adapt and learn. The course will introduce undergraduates, in a largely non-mathematical way, to the the methods and tools of computer-based modeling, and to front-line research on complexity in several different areas of science, including physics, biology, the social sciences, and computer science. Topics will include areas of current research in complex systems science, including dynamics and chaos, information and computation, life and evolution in nature and in machines, the science of networks, and network structure and information processing in living systems. The focus will be on common principles underlying complexity in natural and technological systems.
Note: This class cannot be used to fulfill the upper division CS electives requirement for CS majors.
For the final paper, students will find, read, and summarize three published articles on a particular topic in complex systems science.
Exams: No exams.
Grading: Reading questions and in-class discussion: 30%. Lab assignments: 50%. Final paper: 20%.
Date
Class Topic(s)
Homework and Reading
Mon. Sept. 28
Wed. Sept. 30
Dynamics, Chaos, and Prediction, continued
Introduction to NetLogo, continued
...
Mon. Oct. 5
Week 2 reading: Textbook, Chapters 3-4
Week 2 homework, due Mon. Oct. 12:
Reading questions
Chaos and dynamics lab:
Wed. Oct. 7
Computation
Here are the slides.
...
Mon. Oct. 12
Evolution
Week 3 reading: Textbook Chapters 5-6
Week 3 homework, due Mon. Oct. 19:
Reading questions
Information lab:
Wed. Oct. 14
Evolution, continued
Genetics made simple
...
Mon. Oct. 19
Class cancelled
...
Wed. Oct. 21
Defining and measuring complexity
Here are the slides.
Mon. October 26
Defining and measuring complexity, continued.
Self-reproducing computer programs
Week 5 reading: Textbook Chapters 8-9
Wed. Oct. 28
Genetic algorithms
Here are the slides.
...
Mon. Nov. 2
Week 6 reading: Textbook Chapter 10
Week 6 homework, due Monday Nov. 9:
Genetic algorithms lab:
Wed. Nov. 4
Cellular automata and coevolution
Here are the slides.
...
Mon. Nov. 9
Information processing in living systems
Wed. Nov. 11
Veterans Day: No class
...
Mon. Nov. 16
Analogy-making as a complex system
Week 8 reading: Textbook Chapters 13-14
Wed. Nov. 18
Prospects of computer modeling
Week 8 homework, due Wed. Nov. 25:
Reading questions
Prisoner's dilemma lab
Mon. Nov. 23
Networks 1
Here are the slides.
Week 9 reading: Textbook Chapters 15-16
Wed. Nov. 25
Networks 2
Mon. Nov. 30
Biological scaling
Here are the slides.
Week 10 reading: Textbook, Chapter 17-19
Wed. Dec. 2
Evolution complexified
Here are the slides.
Week 10 homework, due Wed. Dec. 9:
Reading questions
Networks and Scaling lab
Mon. Dec. 7
No class (finals week).
...
Wed. Dec. 9
Special make-up class: 12:30-2:20pm.
Evolution complexified
Future of complex systems science
Week 10 homework and final paper due