Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

The Systems Science Seminar Series covers a wide range of topics, providing an opportunity for presenters to share and attendees to become exposed to the latest research from different fields and disciplines. Agent-based simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, genetic algorithms, machine learning, neural networks, signal processing, social networks, system dynamics, and science itself are just a few of the many diverse topics that have been presented, all in an informal environment where questions and discussion are encouraged.
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Speaker Schedule

Unless otherwise specified, seminars are held on Fridays from 12-1 p.m. in Harder House Room 104 throughout Fall and Winter terms. For those taking the seminar for credit, grading is based on attendance, either in-person or remote.

CONTACT US: If you have questions, comments, or topic/speaker suggestions, or if you would like to present a seminar, please email Wayne Wakeland.

SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT LISTSERV: To receive seminar announcements, you can join our mailing list. If that doesn't work, please email Wayne Wakeland.

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Prediction: The Quintessential Model Validation Test

Wayne Wakeland

10-9-2015

It is essential to objectively test how well policy models predict real world behavior. The method used to support this assertion involves the review of three SD policy models emphasizing ...Read More
Four Decades of Systems Science Teaching and Research at PSU

Wayne Wakeland

10-10-2014

Systems science (SySc) is defined, and a brief background is provided regarding some of the systems science-related societies, conferences, journals, research institutes, and educational programs. The SySc program at Portland ...Read More
Civic Ecology: Living Community Systems for Sustainability

Tim Smith

11-30-2012

Civic Ecology is a stakeholder-driven, whole systems framework for creating sustainable communities. The framework focuses on empowering citizens of all ages, cultures, and abilities to envision, create, and manage their ...Read More
System Dynamics Modeling of Prescription Opioid Pain Reliever Abuse

Alexandra Nielsen

10-12-2012

The nonmedical use of prescription opioid pain relievers and associated overdose deaths have been labeled an epidemic by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. While these medicines play an ...Read More
The Intersection between Science and Computer Science is Almost Empty

Dick Hamlet

6-1-2012

Traditionally, a science such as physics overlaps with mathematics and engineering in a way that has been astonishingly productive. The math provides precise expression for the science, which in turn ...Read More
Levels of Altruism

Martin Zwick and Jeffrey Alan Fletcher

5-25-2012

The phenomenon of altruism extends from the biological realm to the human sociocultural realm. This paper sketches a coherent outline of multiple types of altruism of progressively increasing scope that ...Read More
Bayesian and Related Methods: Techniques Based on Bayes' Theorem

Mehmet Vurkaç

5-8-2012

Bayes' theorem is a simple algebraic consequence of conditional probability. Yet, its consequences are critical to philosophy, society, and technology. Starting from its simple derivation, we will show how its ...Read More
Neuroscience of Personality: Principles of the Psyche as a Living System

Dario Nardi

2-10-2012

The brain is a complex living system. Using colorful slides and anecdotes, Dario Nardi, PhD will overview his hands-on research of the past 5 years in his social neuroscience ...Read More
Ecosystem Services: The Making of a Metaphor We Live (?) By

Richard B. Norgaard

2-3-2012

What started as a humble metaphor to help us think about our relation to nature has become integral to how we are addressing the future of humanity and the course ...Read More
Complexity Theory and Political Change: Talcott Parsons Occupies Wall Street

Martin Zwick

1-27-2012

Complexity theory can assist our understanding of social systems and social phenomena. This paper illustrates this assertion by linking Talcott Parsons' model of societal structure to the Occupy Wall Street ...Read More
New Ways to Manage Information as a Good that Improves with Use

Ida Kubiszewski

11-4-2011

Information has some unique characteristics. Unlike most other goods and services, it is neither rival (use by one prevents use by others) nor non-rival (use by one does not affect ...Read More
Participatory Action Research: Science and Social Change

Dora Raymaker

10-28-2011

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a general collaborative approach to inquiry that includes research "subjects" as members of the research team. Useful in any setting involving groups of people, PAR ...Read More
Instructional Practices for Teaching Systems Concepts

Dario Nardi

10-7-2011

15-minute presentations on the following three topics:

I. Live Group Simulations Promote Learning of Systems Concepts
Systems concepts such as attractors, bifurcation, chaotic behavior, and emergence may be hard for learners to ...Read More
Evolving Machine Morality Strategies through Multiagent Simulations

David Burke

6-3-2011

There is a general consensus among robotics researchers that the world of the future will be filled with autonomous and semi-autonomous machines. There is less of a consensus, though, on ...Read More
Systems Ideas for the Scientific and Societal Imperatives of the Coastal Ocean: Case of the BP Oil Gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, Spring & Summer 2010

Christopher Mooers

5-27-2011

In recent decades, great progress has been made in advancing the scientific understanding of the coastal ocean (i.e., the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)) across a broad set ...Read More
Hardware Acceleration of Inference Computing: The Numenta HTM Algorithm

Dan Hammerstrom

5-13-2011

In this presentation I will describe the latest version of the Numenta HTM Cortical Learning Algorithm and why it is interesting for doing research into radical new computer architectures. Then ...Read More
Regional Trade Agreements and the Pattern of Trade: A Networks Approach

Rossitza Wooster, Javier A. Reyes, and Stuart Shirell

4-29-2011

This paper uses a complex network approach for the analysis of bilateral trade data between countries over the period 1970-2000. We compute the network community structure for every year between ...Read More
Integer Optimization and Computational Algebraic Topology

Bala Krishnamoorthy

4-22-2011

We present recently discovered connections between integer optimization, or integer programming (IP), and homology. Under reasonable assumptions, these results lead to efficient solutions of several otherwise hard-to-solve problems from computational ...Read More
Systems Views of the Economics of Sustainable Development

Joshua Hughes

4-15-2011

The mainstream economics of the 20th century (and now 21st century) has often failed to predict what will happen--or explain what has happened--in the real world, even with (or because ...Read More
Higher-level Application of Adaptive Dynamic Programming/reinforcement Learning – A Next phase for Controls and System Identification?

George G. Lendaris

4-8-2011

Humans have the ability to make use of experience while performing system identification and selecting control actions for changing situations. In contrast to current technological implementations that slow down as ...Read More
Building a Decision Aid Right-side-out

Barry F. Anderson

4-1-2011

Tools have long been available for improving decision making, yet people who have knowledge of these tools seem reluctant to use them. I consider multiple reasons why this might be ...Read More
Modal Logic and its Applications, Explained using Puzzles and Examples

Marek Perkowski

3-4-2011

The talk introduces Modal Logic as an extension of classical propositional and First Order Logics. We discuss motivations of Lewis to create modal logic system, axioms and rules of proof. ...Read More
The Illicit Arms Trade: A Social Network Analysis

David Todd Kinsella

3-4-2011

In recent years, researchers have increasingly turned their attention to the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Small arms are difficult to track and are not the stuff of ...Read More
Some Problems and Solutions in the Experimental Science of Technology: The Proper Use and Reporting of Statistics in Computational Intelligence, with an Experimental Design from Computational Ethnomusicology

Mehmet Vurkaç

2-25-2011

Statistics is the meta-science that lends validity and credibility to The Scientific Method. However, as a complex and advanced Science in itself, Statistics is often misunderstood and misused by scientists, ...Read More
Optimality in Neural Adaptation

Adrienne Fairhall

2-18-2011

Nervous systems tune themselves to the statistical structure of the stimuli they encounter. This sensitivity to statistics appears in phenomena ranging over many timescales, from the adaptation of vision to ...Read More