Section Computational Science Universiteit van Amsterdam Spring 2009

This is the official webpage for the Complex Systems Simulation (CSS) course for the Autum 2009 Semester Block A, organized by the Section Computational Science (SCS) at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Peter M.A. Sloot

Students should check Blackboard !

Course Topics and Outline

• Intro modeling and Simulation of Micro-Meso-Macro systems (PS)
L-Systems (PS)
• Random Walks and Diffusion (PS)
• Percolation (C&M)
Measuring Complexity with
• Cellular Automata (PS & Boc)
• Ising Spin (PS & C&M)
• Sand-pile & SOC (C&M)
• Small World and Complex Networks (Boc)

Material: (see literature list below)
PS : Lecture notes P.M.A. Sloot
C&M : K.Christensen and N.R. Moloney
Boc : N.Boccara

People

In addition to the topics above (Lecturer Peter Sloot), there will be 1 guest lectures for this course by Dr. Roeland Merks (CWI) on Potts Models

Dr. Leen Torenvliet (on Dr. Drona Kandhai and Drs. Qiu (on CA models in Finance) Dr. Alfons Hoekstra (on Lattice Gas models)

Schedule

For the schedule of the course please check Blackboard !

Time and Place

Every Monday and Friday in June

Credits

6 ECTS

Target Audience

Computational Scientists MSc course

Prerequisites

Since the type of course requires a lot of unsupervised learning  (...)   it is essential that you have at least some understanding of Modeling and Simulation, Computational Methods, for instance through:

• Simulation and Modeling (Year 1, Info, Phys, Math)
• Stochastic Simulation (Year 3, Phys, Info) 

And preferably have some background in information theory and statistical physics

Format

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the field of Complex Systems and get them directly involved in research.  As such, less emphasis will be placed on a "top-down" approach as in standard lecture courses.  Students will have an opportunity to decide which topics are covered, and their projects will shape the direction of the course.

Text Books

Main Text 1:
	Nino Boccara, "Modeling Complex Systems" , Springer Ltd., 2004.
Main Text 2:
	Kim Christensen and Nicolas R. Moloney, “Complexity and Criticality”, Imperial College Press, 2005.
Other good texts we might use:
	Andrew Ilachinski, "Cellular Automata: A Discrete Universe" , World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., 2001.
	Per Bak, "How nature works: the science of self-organized criticality", Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 1996.
	Yaneer Bar-Yam, "Dynamics of Complex Systems", Addison-Wesley, 1996.  pdf document can be downloaded through the NECSI
	Stephen Wolfram, "A New Kind of Science", Wolfram Media Inc., 2002.
	Gérard Weisbuch, "Complex Systems Dynamics", Addison Wesley Longman, 1991.

Links to related material

• Intro Course on Modeling and Simulation (by P.M.A. Sloot)
• Links page
• Complex System References
• Official information on this course, and timetable
• Webpage of the Section Computational Science

Projects from Previous Years

• Benchmarking a 2D Lattice Boltzman BGK Model
• Self-Reproducing Cellular Automata: Introducing Memory in Evoloops
• Cellular Neural Networks
• Traffic Simulation I
• Traffic Simulation II
• Simulating the Immune system
• Simulating 'Go'

Examination

You are supposed to study this work more or less on your own. We will have regular meetings to discuss chapters. After a mutual part that we study together, you will choose a topic of your own. You will present this topic in 2 lectures.

• 10% interim presentation
• 30% final presentation
• 40% final paper
• 20% attendance + assigned questions