0 or 3 credits
Fall 2025 Lecture ScienceUpper DivisionThe main goal of this course is to address grand challenges that are of global concern - such as environmental sustainability and energy use, natural and human disasters, and political and economic development - using the ideas and tools of complex adaptive systems. The course addresses these challenges from diverse disciplinary perspectives, from the biological and physical sciences to the social sciences, to engineering. Through the experiments and computer simulations, students will analyze the features of these challenges which make them complex and seek to explain and find solutions to the problems that arise.
Learning Outcomes1Describe global challenges using engineering, biological, physical, and social scientific perspectives, including attention to the interdependence of the different perspectives.
2Explain the fundamental concepts of 'complex adaptive systems, ' including applications to different global challenges.
3Develop basic proficiency in applying computer modeling to represent the behavior of complex systems, with applications to the global challenges.
4Apply the concepts and tools of complexity research to develop a group-based proposal of comprehensive policies/solutions/strategies in a new and unresolved problem area.
No grades available
No grades available
No grades available
No grades available
No grades available
No grades available