The ISU Complex Adaptive Systems Seminar

Fall 2003 Regular Meeting Time and Place:
Mondays, 10-11:30, 1246 Howe Hall (unless otherwise indicated)

Fall 2003 Seminar Schedule and Information Page

ISU Graduate Minor in Complex Adaptive Systems

Last Updated: 11 September 2003

Site maintained by:
Leigh Tesfatsion
Department of Economics
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011-1070
http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/
tesfatsi@iastate.edu

What are complex adaptive systems?

Many natural systems, and increasingly many artificial (man-made) systems as well, exhibit complex global regularities that arise as the result of interactions among distributed system components capable of some degree of adaptation to their environment. Examples of such natural systems include immune systems, nervous systems, multicellular organisms, ecologies, and insect societies. Artificial systems sharing this property include parallel and distributed computing systems, large-scale communication networks, artificial neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, large-scale software systems, and economies. Such systems are generally referred to as Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS).

Researchers in a large number of disparate areas have begun to address the analysis and synthesis of CAS through a combination of applied, theoretical, and experimental methods. At ISU, for example, interest in such systems has attracted the attention of faculty and students from a wide variety of fields, including biology, computer science, economics, engineering, mathematics, neuroscience, philosophy, physics, and psychology.



Conway's Game of Life Spatial Migration Ant Foraging Behavior Autonomous Robot

About the CAS Seminar:

The ISU CAS Seminar, a descendant (with modification) of the originally founded ISU Alife Workshop, has been held each semester since 1993. The seminar is open to all interested faculty and students. Please contact Leigh Tesfatsion ( tesfatsi@iastate.edu) if you would like to be added to the CAS Seminar mailing list. At each weekly meeting the discussion focuses on a specific CAS-related topic led by an assigned seminar moderator. Selected readings are sometimes distributed in advance. The current seminar schedule is linked at the top of this web site. A listing of many of the past seminar schedules, is also available.

Background information on CAS can be obtained at the Complex Adaptive Systems Group Web Page maintained by Vasant Honavar (Computer Science, ISU). Extensive CAS-related resources can also be accessed at a website on Agent-Based Computational Economics (ACE) maintained by Leigh Tesfatsion (Economics, ISU). ACE is the specialization to economics of the basic CAS paradigm. The CAS/ACE resources available at the ACE website include surveys and other introductory materials, an annotated syllabus of readings, course outlines, specific research area resource sites, software, interactive computer demos, and pointers to individual researchers and research groups.

Copyright © 2003 Leigh Tesfatsion. All Rights Reserved.