Web site: http:// www.sun.ceu.hu/complex-systems/

Application deadline for scholarship applications: 14 February, 2008
Application deadline for fee-paying applications: 30 May, 2008

Course Directors:
Laszlo Gulyas, Collegium Budapest and AITIA Inc., Budapest, Hungary;
Gyorgy Kampis, Collegium Budapest and Eötvös University, Hungary

Course Manager:
Laszlo Laufer, Central European University and Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary ([email protected])

Course Faculty:
Petra Ahrweiler, National Institute of Technology Management, UCD School of Business
Stefano Battiston, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Lars-Erik Cederman, ETH Zürich
Laszlo Gulyas, Collegium Budapest and AITIA Inc, Budapest
George Kampis, Collegium Budapest
Krzystof Kurowski, Poznanskie Centrum Superkomputerowo Sieciowe, Poznan
Scott Page, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Flaminio Squazzoni, University of Brescia, Italy
Klaus G. Troitzsch, University of Koblenz

Target group:
MA and Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, researchers and professionals. Undergraduates without a university degree will not be considered.

Course Summary:
The terms Complex Systems (CSs) denotes an inderdisciplinary research methodology currently successful in the social sciences and elsewhere. CS research originated from phyiscs and nonlinear systems some decades ago but its models have soon permeated distant fields as economy, political science or more recently sociology. As implied by the name, a CS is essentially a system of many complicated interactions. Complex Systems methodology has developed sophisticated yet well understood tools to cope with this challenge. In social systems the essence of CS is the characterization of the distributed dynamics of how the interaction of many actors and variables leads to predictable phenomena, that often involve hierarchy, emergence, dynamic structures and large scale transitions.

Each day in the course focuses on one tool of this encompassing methodology.

CS methods include various mathematical models (nonlinear systems, networks, statistical approaches), computer simulations (e.g. systems dynamics, agent-based modeling). CS simulations are highly computation intensive and pose problems of supercomputing and parallelization.

The CSSS course offers lectures, tutorials and discussions on the whole spectrum of the above. Lectures are from leading experts, specifically focusing on CS concepts, modeling and (social) simulation, followed by discussion.

Topics:
CSS and Innovation, Social Networks, CSS in Political Science, CSS Tools with a Special Emphasis on Simulation, Bio-Inspired CSS Models, Efficient Studies of CSS: Supercomputers and Grids, Evolutionary Game Theory and Social Systems, CSS in Socio-Economics, CSS in Sociology

The language of instruction: English

Tuition fee: The 500 EUR/2 weeks.