Centre for Complex Systems
Exploring complex natural and artificial systems
We study collective behaviours and critical phenomena in various contexts: brain dynamics, computational epidemiology, urban and social dynamics, swarm intelligence, distributed computation, systems biology and nanoscience.
Our centre hosts biennial symposia and camps designed to bring together leading international scholars to discuss the latest in complex systems research.
Our research has an impact on diverse areas such as neuroengineering, epidemic modelling, active matter, systemic risk analysis and crisis forecasting, disaster and emergency management, as well as critical infrastructure stability.
It helps to develop solutions that can be applied to a wide range of industries including information and communication technologies, financial services, health, energy and civil and transport infrastructure.
Every two years, we host a symposium that brings together leading international scholars to discuss the latest in complex systems research.
The Complexity, Criticality and Computation (C3) symposia bring to light emerging research and ideas about complex systems. In particular, we explore the relationship between three key concepts:
A system can be thought of as complex if its dynamics cannot be easily predicted, or explained, as a linear summation of the individual dynamics of its components.
Our camps are designed to develop the knowledge and skills required to study complex systems. Humans are typically inclined to use reductionist logic. To understand how a system would behave overall, or to test whether a human-made system works as it was intended to, we put it through a series of short, discrete scenarios, expecting a ‘correct' response to each scenario.
However, complex systems do not lend themselves to short, discrete scenarios. Not all scenarios have clear endings or known, correct answers. The study of complex systems is about understanding indirect effects.
