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.
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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It's Mostly Assumptions: Modeling a Pandemic
Peter Graven
10-29-2021
COVID-19 has engulfed the planet and decision-makers are dealing with a situation that affects life in extreme proportions. Unfortunately, the virus has given many twists and turns and isn't done ...Read More
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Systemic Innovation and Collaboration: New Leadership Approaches for Public Policy And Systems Change
Roderick Campbell
10-22-2021
We are increasingly facing highly interdependent issues that span stakeholder, jurisdictional, and geopolitical boundaries which have to be managed rather than solved. We know that traditional policy and management approaches ...Read More
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Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping: Is a Hot Dog a Sandwich
Catherine Moore
10-15-2021
Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping is a modeling modality that focuses on capturing human knowledge and understanding. They offer an accessible, quick modeling process that can be used to capture an individual’s ...Read More
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The Systems Engineering Worldview: The Technological Structure and Function of Reality
Terry Bristol
10-8-2021
The research reported here is concerned with understanding the components and composition of reality, according to the systems engineering worldview. To start, George Bugliarello argues that what engineers do, their ...Read More
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Get Your Model Out There: Advancing Methods for Developing and Using Causal-Loop Diagrams
Erin S. Kenzie
2-3-2021
As simple visual diagrams of key dynamics in complex systems, causal-loop diagrams could meet known needs in settings such as theory-based program evaluation and qualitative research. Methods for developing and ...Read More
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Do. Or Do Not.* An Introduction to Urnomics
Christian Echt
3-13-2020
Why do things do stuff ?
With at least as much high-falootin’ technical jargon as the previous sentence, this presentation will ruminate on preferences and agency. While there is considerable merit ...Read More -
Adoption Patterns in the Diffusion of Distributed Energy Resources
Josh Keeling
3-6-2020
Given the growing trends towards decentralization and decarbonization of the power sector, there is an increasing need to understand how customers make energy decisions at a more granular level. This ...Read More
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Framing Wicked Problems: Harnessing Collective Intelligence with Participatory Modeling and Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping
Peter Roolf
2-28-2020
Wicked problems are issues facing human social systems that are persistent or reoccurring, have difficult-to-detect origins, complex networks of causation, and that respond to interventions by generating undesirable unintended consequences. ...Read More
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What is Not a System?
Gary Langford
2-21-2020
The difficulties in applying General Systems Theory (GST) have pointed out notable inconsistencies in what needs to be included in GST, intransitivities between competing or subsidiary theories based on GST ...Read More
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Modeling Post-fire Successional Trajectories under Climate Change in Interior Alaska using Landis II
Shelby A. Weiss
2-14-2020
Alaska boreal forest ecosystems are experiencing a greater frequency of wildfire relative to the region’s historic fire regime. These increases in fire frequency, as well as annual burned area, increase ...Read More
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Realist Evaluation: A Systems Approach for Understanding and Assessing Complex Social Programs
Dora Raymaker
2-7-2020
Realist evaluation, a theory-driven approach to program evaluation grounded in realist philosophy, is designed to address the question: What works for whom, to what extent, in what circumstances, and why? ...Read More
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Application of Reconstructability Analysis to the NW Power Grid
Marcus Harris
1-31-2020
This talk will focus on preliminary results from Reconstructability Analysis (RA) models, Bayesian Network (BN) models, and standard linear regression to predict dynamics on the bulk electric grid. The best ...Read More
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Using GIS Raster Data Analysis with Reconstructability Analysis Tools
David Percy
1-24-2020
Reconstructability Analysis (RA) has been successfully used to analyze a myriad of different data types. At its core it relies on a row-based approach to data where each row represents ...Read More
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Statistical Analysis of Social Network Change
Teresa D. Schmidt
1-10-2020
We explore two statistical methods that infer social network structures and statistically test those structures for change over time: regression-based differential network analysis (R-DNA) and information theory-based differential network analysis ...Read More
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Computational Social Science Society of Americas (CSSA) Conferences as a Venue for Publication and Outreach
Rajesh Venkatachalapathy
12-6-2019
I had the opportunity to present my work at CSS18 and CSS19 and was/am pleasantly surprised by its casual and stimulating ambience. The themes of this conference are highly aligned ...Read More
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Computational Integration for Augmenting Human Cognition
David Lawrence
11-22-2019
How can we improve the relationship between people and technology? Is society forever indentured to surveillance capitalists, consigned to behaving for the benefit of elite others? We think not, and ...Read More
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Recursive Identity and Purposeful Change
Howard Silverman
11-15-2019
Numerous theorists have used the concept of “identity” to characterize persistence and change in the experience and analysis of social and/or ecological systems. These include: Allena Leonard and Niklas Luhmann ...Read More
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Computing Complex Tasks with Dynamical Cellular Systems
Neil Babson
11-8-2019
Computing with ultra-simple, small, dynamical systems, such as Cellular Automata (CA), Random Boolean Networks (RBNs), or Reservoir Computers (RC) is appealing because such systems are in general ultra-low power and ...Read More
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Using Large-Scale Meteorological Patterns to Better Understand Local-Scale Weather and Climate Extremes
Paul Loikith
11-1-2019
High-impact weather and climate events such as temperature extremes, heavy rainfall, and lightning are all associated with numerous impacts on society and the environment. Furthermore, anthropogenic climate change is broadly ...Read More
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Motivating the Quickest Possible Economic Transition to Low Fossil Fuel Use: Theory and Application
Steve Staloff
10-18-2019
This research addresses the quickest means of minimizing fossil fuel use and, thus, the existential threat of climate change due to the impact of greenhouse gas accumulation. The apparently simple ...Read More
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A Computational Model for Recovery from Brain Injury
Wayne Wakeland
10-11-2019
A computational simulation model calculates recovery trajectories following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Prior publications include a multi-scale framework for studying concussion and a systems-level causal loop diagram (CLD) and discussion ...Read More
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Intergenerational & Environmental Drivers of Obesity: an Agent Based Model Approach
Dale Frakes
10-4-2019
Obesity prevalence remains high and exhibits pronounced social patterning in the U.S., despite widespread intervention efforts. Complex individual, environmental, and intergenerational influences on obesity are difficult to study using traditional ...Read More
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Fractal Dimension as Objective Function in a Genetic Algorithm for Application in Architectural Design
John Charles Driscoll
3-15-2019
One of the goals of The Green New Deal Resolution reads, “upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency, water efficiency, ...Read More
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Managing Healthcare Data Assets as a Complex Adaptive System
Katie Clifton
3-8-2019
A major project is underway to develop a shared platform for data and analytics in a highly federated healthcare delivery organization. In the status quo data environment, analysts have integrated ...Read More
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Systems Thinking as a Design Process
Elizabeth Lockwood
3-1-2019
During my master’s degree I analyzed sustainable practices in the built environment. What came from that work was a deep level of understanding that the current practices and rating systems ...Read More