CS 346U / SYSC 346U
Computer Science, Systems Science
University Studies Freedom, Privacy, and Technology Cluster Course
Fall Quarter 2010
Time : Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-3:50pm
Location: Cramer 158
Instructor: Jeff Fletcher, Ph.D., Systems Science and University
Studies
Office: Room 201 Harder House (SW 10th and SW Market St.)
Office hours: Mondays 16:00, Fridays 13:00pm, or by appointment
Contact: jeff@pdx.edu;
503-725-4995
Course Website: http://web.pdx.edu/~jeff/courses/complexity_fall2010/
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.
Prerequisites: None
Textbook: Mellanie Mitchell, Complexity: A Guided Tour|
Date |
Class Topic(s) |
Readings,
Homeworks, and Labs |
|
Mon. Sept. 27 |
Class introduction |
Week 1 reading: Textbook, Chapters 1-2 |
|
Wed. Sept. 29 |
Dynamics, Chaos, and Prediction, continued (today's slides) bunnies with birth and death |
... |
|
Mon. Oct. 4 |
Ways of knowing. (today's slides) |
Week 2 reading: Textbook, Chapters 3-4
|
|
Wed. Oct. 6 |
Computation (today's
slides) |
... |
|
Mon. Oct. 11 |
Class Cancelled |
Week 3 reading: Textbook
Chapters 5-6
|
|
Wed. Oct. 13 |
Evolution (today's
slides) |
Information
lab: Lab Assignment Lab2 information-content.nlogo Due Wed. Oct. 20 (turn in on Blackboard) |
|
Mon. Oct. 18 |
Evolution, continued |
...
|
|
Wed. Oct. 20 |
Defining and measuring complexity |
Week 4 homework, due Wed. Oct. 27: Reading questions Fractals lab: Lab Assignment Lab3 NewLSystemFractals.nlogo Due Wed. Oct. 27 (turn in on Blackboard) |
|
Mon. October 25 |
Defining and measuring complexity, continued. |
...
|
|
Wed. Oct. 27 |
Self-reproducing computer programs Genetic algorithms |
Week 5 reading: Textbook Chapters 8-9 Reading
questions |
|
Mon. Nov. 1 |
Genetic algorithms, cellular automata (today's
slides) |
Genetic algorithms lab (continued) Week 6 reading: Textbook Chapter 10 |
|
Wed. Nov. 3 |
Cellular automata and coevolution |
Week 6-7 homework, due Wed. Nov.
15: Cellular automata lab: |
|
Mon. Nov. 8 |
Information processing in living systems |
Week 7 reading: Textbook
Chapters 11-12 Paper topic proposals due Final Paper |
|
Wed. Nov. 10 |
Information processing continued |
... |
|
Mon. Nov. 15 |
Analogy-making as a complex system Start on Game Theory |
Week 8 reading: Textbook Chapters 13-14 Reading
questions (HW 7) Prisoner's dilemma lab: |
|
Wed. Nov. 17 |
Prospects of computer modeling Public Goods Demo (Excel Spreadsheet) Games as Models Evolution of Cooperation (today's slides) |
...
|
|
Mon. Nov. 22 |
Networks |
Week 9 reading: Textbook Chapters 15-16 Reading
questions (HW 8) |
|
Wed. Nov. 24 |
Lab Day (pre Thanksgiving) |
|
|
Mon. Nov. 29 |
Biological scaling |
Week 10 reading: Textbook, Chapter 17-19 |
|
Wed. Dec. 1 |
Evolution complexified (today's slides) |
...
|
| Friday. Dec. 3 | Final
Paper Due on Blackboard |
|
|
Mon. Dec. 6 |
No class (finals week). |
|