Complex Systems Reading Group
Note: All meetings are at 4:30 p.m. at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next
to the law quad and business school) unless otherwise noted.
August 24
This week CSAAW and CSRG will complete our discussion of "The
Computational Beauty of Nature" book and conclude our summer group of
meetings. As usual, we will meet at 4:30 pm on Tues. (8/24) at
Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law quad and business school).
We will wrap up neural networks and learning and the concluding material:
Chapter 22.5-22.9 Neural Networks and Learning
Chapter 23 Postscript: Adaptation
Chapter 24 Duality and Dichotomy
If you have any lingering questions, comments or thoughts about this part
or any part of the book, drop by and share them with us.
If you find or know of any more good links related to the book, please
post links on the Zwiki,
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
If you have any trouble using or adding to the page, email me, or try the
"Help" link.
See you there!
August 17
The CSAAW and CSRG will continue our discussion of "The Computational
Beauty of Nature" book. As usual, we will meet at 4:30 pm on Tues. (8/17)
at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law quad and business school).
This week we will wrap up classifier systems and look at neural networks
and learning:
Chapter 21.3-21.6 Classifier Systems
Chapter 22.1-22.4 Neural Networks and Learning
Even if you don't get through the reading, feel free to drop by. I know I
have some catching up to do myself. If you find or know of good links on
this material, please post links on the Zwiki,
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
If you have any trouble using or adding to the page, email me, or try the
"Help" link.
See you next Tuesday!
August 10
Once again the CSAAW and CSRG will continue discussing "The Computational
Beauty of Nature" book. As usual, we will meet at 4:30 pm on Tues. (8/10)
at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law quad and business school).
You are on your own this week folks since I'll be out of town. The plan
is to look at genetics and evolution:
Chapter 20 Genetics and Evolution
Chapter 21.1-21.2 Classifier Systems
Chapter 21 is rather large, so we are breaking it up. Feel free to read
further if you'd like. If you find or know of good material, please
post links on the Zwiki,
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
Check out the help page if you have any trouble.
Take care!
August 3
If you have attended a CSRG reading group meeting, you may have
heard Ted Belding elliptically tell a story of a glass of beer and
analog computation.
Well, next Tuesday we will be discussing intriguing topic of analog
computation very likely in the presence of glasses of beer and maybe even
Ted Belding (I haven't asked him).
Yes, that's right, the Complex Systems Advanced Academic Workshop (CSAAW)
and the Complex Systems Reading Group (CSRG) will continue discussing
Gary Flake's book, "The Computational Beauty of Nature". We will meet at
4:30 pm on Tues. 8/3 at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law quad
and business school).
This week we will look into analog computation and neural networks and
wrap up the complex systems portion of the book:
Chapter 18 Natural and Analog Computation
Chapter 19 Postscript: Complex Systems
This is a less traveled subject for me. I put up a couple of links on the
Zwiki, but, if you find or know of any better information on the subject,
please post links on the Zwiki,
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
Check out the help page, and email me or Bill Rand (wrand@umich.edu) if
you have any trouble.
See you Tuesday!
July 27
Here's a brief reminder that the Complex Systems Advanced Academic
Workshop (CSAAW) and the Complex Systems Reading Group (CSRG) will
continue its joint discussion group for Gary Flake's book, "The
Computational Beauty of Nature". We will meet as usual at 4:30 pm on
Tues. 7/27 at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law quad and
business school). We'll discuss Chapter 16 (Autonomous Agents and
Self-Organization and Chapter 17 (Competition and Cooperation). If you
find or know of any additional relevant information, feel free to post
links on the Zwiki,
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
See you there!
July 20
Here is a quick reminder that the Complex Systeims Advanced Academic
Workshop (CSAAW) and the Complex Systems Reading Group (CSRG) will
continue its joint discussion group for Gary Flake's book, "The
Computational Beauty of Nature". We will meet at 4:30 pm on Tues. 7/20 at
Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law quad and business school).
This week we will discuss Chapter 14 (Postscript: Chaos) and Chapter 15
(Cellular Automata). I've been swamped, but feel free to add and read
links off the Zwiki
July 13
Once again, the Complex Systeims Advanced Academic Workshop (CSAAW) and
the Complex Systems Reading Group (CSRG) will continue its joint
discussion group for Gary Flake's book, "The Computational Beauty of
Nature". We will meet at 4:30 pm on Tues. 7/13 at Dominick's (812 Monroe
St., next to the law quad and business school).
This week we will start up the nonlinear dynamics portion of the book and
discuss Chapter 12 (Producer-Consumer Dynamics) and Chapter 13
(Controlling Chaos). If anyone finds additional interesting information
and links relevant to this week's reading, please post it on the Zwiki
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
Check out the help page, and email me or Bill Rand (wrand@umich.edu) if
you have any trouble.
July 6
The Complex Systems Advanced Academic Workshop (CSAAW) and the Complex
Systems Reading Group (CSRG) will continue its joint discussion group for
Gary Flake's book, "The Computational Beauty of Nature". We will meet at
4:30 pm on Tues. 7/6 at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law quad
and business school).
This week we will start up the nonlinear dynamics portion of the book and
discuss Chapter 10 (Nonlinear Dynamics in Simple Maps) and Chapter 11
(Strange Attractors). I have added a couple of strange attractor links
to the Zwiki page
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
If anyone finds additional interesting information and links relevant to
this week's reading, please post them. Check out the help page, and email
me or Bill Rand (wrand@umich.edu) if you have any trouble.
June 29
Here is a quick reminder that the Complex Systems Advanced Academic
Workshop (CSAAW) and the Complex Systems Reading Group (CSRG) will
continue its joint discussion group for Gary Flake's book, "The
Computational Beauty of Nature". We will meet at 4:30 pm on Tues. 6/29
at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law quad and business school).
This week we will wrap on the fractal portion of the book and discuss
Chapter 7 (Affine Transformation Fractals), Chapter 8 (The Mandelbrot
Set and Julia Sets) and Chapter 9 (Postscript: Fractals). I will be
out of town this week, but, if anyone finds additional interesting
information and links relevant to this week's reading, please post it on
the Zwiki
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
Check out the help page, and email Bill Rand (wrand@umich.edu) if
you have any trouble.
June 22
The Complex Systems Advanced Academic Workshop (CSAAW) and the Complex
Systems Reading Group (CSRG) will continue its joint discussion group for
Gary Flake's book, "The Computational Beauty of Nature". We will meet
at 4:30 pm on Tues. 6/22 at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law
quad and business school).
This week we will focus on the fractal side and discuss Chapter 5
(Self-Similarity and Fractal Geometry) and Chapter 6 (L-Systems and
Fractal Growth). I'll try to post something at the
interactive/collaborative webpage,or ZWiki, for this discussion group,
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
but I must say it probably won't happen until the end of the weekend. If
you find additional interesting information and links relevant to the
reading, please post it. Email if you have any trouble.
June 15
The Complex Systems Advanced Academic Workshop (CSAAW) and the Complex
Systems Reading Group (CSRG) will continue its joint discussion group for
Gary Flake's book, "The Computational Beauty of Nature". We will meet
at 4:30 pm on Tues. 6/15 at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law
quad and business school).
This week we will focus on the computational side and discuss Chapter 3
(Computability and Incomputability) and Chapter 4 (Computation). Check
out the interactive/collaborative webpage,or ZWiki, for this discussion group,
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
where we all can post additional interesting information and links
relevant to the reading. There we have links to the 1950 Turing paper
referenced in Chapter 5. More could be done with this page
formatwise and contentwise if you'd like.
June 8
The Complex Systems Advanced Academic Workshop (CSAAW) and the Complex
Systems Reading Group (CSRG) will start its joint discussion group for
Gary Flake's book, "The Computational Beauty of Nature". Our first
meeting will be ==> 4:30 pm <=== on Tues. 6/8 at Dominick's (812 Monroe
St., next to the law quad and business school). Please note the EARLIER
time than what we have been doing.
This week we will discuss Chapters 1 and 2. Bill Rand, a CSAAW organizer,
has been nice enough to start an interactive/collaborative webpage,
or ZWiki, for this discussion group,
http://www.cscs.umich.edu:8080/CSRG/FrontPage
where we all can post additional interesting information and links
relevant to the reading.
June 1
DOUBLE BILL: (1) Mark Newman's "throttling computer epidemics" paper and
(2) an organizational meeting for the "Computational Beauty of Nature"
book reading...
Last things first, let me give you an update on the CSAAW/CSRG reading
Gary Flake's "The Computational Beauty of Nature" book that I had
mentioned earlier. If you are interested in reading the book, please
come to this meeting (5:30 pm on Tues. 6/1) if you can. We will handle
organizational issues there, and we plan to start discussing the book
at the next meeting (6/8). If you cannot attend the 6/1 meeting but still
want to participate in the book reading/discussion, please send me an
email. There is a slight possibility of a bureaucratic hang-up, but I
will keep you posted if one arises.
On to this week's paper...
This week's paper for the Complex Systems Reading Group will turn to
epidemics on technological networks. Lucky for us, Prof. Mark Newman, one
of the authors, will be there to discuss the paper.
As usual, CSRG will be meeting Tuesday, June 1 at 5:30 p.m. at Dominick's
(812 Monroe St., next to the law quad and business school).
Technological Networks and the Spread of Computer Viruses
http://www.umich.edu/~warrencp/throttling.pdf
Justin Balthrop, Stephanie Forrest, M. E. J. Newman, Matthew M. Williamson
Science, 304(5670), 527-529 , 23 April 2004
Malicious computer software in the form of viruses and worms continues to
plague modern information networks. What strategies are on the horizon for
controlling the digital pestilence? In their Perspective, Balthrop et al.
survey the structure of computer networks and analyze their
epidemiological characteristics. The most effective strategy may turn out
to be a form of speed limit in which the rate of new network connections
is controlled. A throttling mechanism of this sort would slow the spread
of computer infections while leaving normal network traffic unhampered.
May 25
The Complex Systems Reading Group will be meeting Tuesday, May 25 at
5:30 p.m. at Dominick's (812 Monroe St., next to the law quad
and business school).
I spoke with Bill Rand about CSRG and CSAAW reading Flake's The
Computational Beauty of Nature book, and he wanted to discuss it with
CSAAW first, so we probably won't start reading it until June some time.
Again, I'll keep you posted.
For this week's CSRG meeting, we will be reading and discussing a paper on
a quite detailed simulation of disease outbreaks in a city...
Modelling disease outbreaks in realistic urban social networks
Nature 429, 180-184 (2004)
by Stephen Eubank, Hasan Guclu, V. S. Anil Kumar, Madhav V. Marathe,
Aravind Srinivasan, Zoltan Toroczkai & Nan Wang
http://www.umich.edu/~warrencp/02541.pdf
Most mathematical models for the spread of disease use differential
equations based on uniform mixing assumptions or ad hoc models for the
contact process. Here we explore the use of dynamic bipartite graphs to
model the physical contact patterns that result from movements of
individuals between specific locations. The graphs are generated by
large-scale individual-based urban traffic simulations built on actual
census, land-use and population-mobility data. We find that the contact
network among people is a strongly connected small-world-like graph with a
well-defined scale for the degree distribution. However, the locations
graph is scale-free, which allows highly efficient outbreak detection by
placing sensors in the hubs of the locations network. Within this
large-scale simulation framework, we then analyse the relative merits of
several proposed mitigation strategies for smallpox spread. Our results
suggest that outbreaks can be contained by a strategy of targeted
vaccination combined with early detection without resorting to mass
vaccination of a population.
