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This course is archived
Course date
July 1–30, 1997
Location
Budapest
Application deadline
Course delivery
In-person

The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to recent developments in mathematics, computation and communication which have important implications for the study of social systems. In support of the enrichment of higher education in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the course offers academic scholars an introduction to the study of complex behavior in natural systems with a focus on systems involving the collective behavior of human agents. Studies of social systems have been divided by academic tradition into fields such as economics, sociology, history, political science, environmental science... New mathematical and computational approaches reinforce the notion that there is an underlying unity in the complex human systems which form the subject matter of these academic domains. These new approaches fall into a number of related sub-disciplines denoted by terms such as Complex Adaptive Systems, Agent-based Artificial Intelligence, Software Agents, Computational Economics, Self-Organized Social Phenomena. All are concerned with systems composed of collections of interacting entities, human agents, with rules for their behavior, communicating, remembering and learning. For the definition of human agents and their learning and communication they draw on recent advances in Cognitive Science, Psychology, Communication Theory and Linguistics. The course The four-week program will feature intensive tool-kit introductions to basic topics; week-long lecture courses on selected subjects, seminars, and computer lab workshops. The emphasis will be on interdisciplinary collaboration. 1) Short Courses and Seminars will be presented by internationally-recognized researchers in the developing fields of Complex Adaptive Systems, Agent-based Artificial Intelligence, Software Agents, Computational Economics, Self-Organized Social Phenomena and related studies. 2)A hands-on introduction to SWARM software for the modeling of Complex Adaptive Systems will be presented, including interactive exploration of SWARM programs under development ( see http://www.santafe.edu/projects/swarm/ ). 3) The course will have a highly interactive format. Workshops will encourage teams of course participants in the creation and pursuit of collaborative research projects. The intent is that these research teams would continue to pursue these projects after the course, forming the core of collaborative network for teaching and research. 4) An introduction to the resources of the Internet for teaching and research in agent-based modeling of social systems and the use of user-friendly Java and Castanet-based graphical interfaces to agent-based complex systems modeling environments on remote supercomputers. The course meetings will be held at the Systems Laboratory of Central European University in Budapest. Facilities include advanced computer workstations (Silicon Graphics, Pentium/Windows and Macintosh PowerPC) and high-speed network access both internal and to the Internet. The Systems Laboratory is in the Kerepesi Residence Center, where the participants will live. Participants We seek a diverse group, but successful applicants will have at least some computer programming experience; facility with Unix and C are desirable, C++, Objective C or Java a plus. Selected participants will have University degrees and graduate training in Mathematics, Computer Science, Linguistics, or one of the Social Sciences (Economics, Sociology, History, Political Science, Environmental Science or related fields) accompanied by computer expertise. Command of English is required. We seek people who have demonstrated a substantial level of commitment and accomplishment in their area of concentration prior to application, with an emphasis on creative extensions of that domain. Beyond that, we are also interested in individuals who have academic backgrounds that are variously described as unorthodox, innovative, or self-generated. Their backgrounds could be emphatically not narrowly technical, but instead anticipate the mix of disciplines found within the program.

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