Warwick Doctoral Training Centre in Complexity Science

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Warwick Doctoral Training Centre in Complexity
Science

• Aim
• train a new generation of complexity scientists
  at PhD level, teaching knowledge and
  skills to
• understand, control and design complex systems
• do innovative research in complexity science
• via
• critical thinking
• interdisciplinary teamwork
• end-user interaction.

• Comes under wider Warwick Complexity Complex
• Housed in dedicated new extension to Maths
  Stats building.

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Research Training

• Taught MSc modules
• Self-organisation and Emergence.
• Complexity Science in the real world.
• Complexity in the time domain.
• Advanced Statistical Methods.
• Time Series from a Stochastic Viewpoint.
• Micro to Macro PDE methods and applications.
• Quantifying correlation and spatio-temporal
  complexity
• Option from MOAC or Systems Biology.

• Skills training
• Teamwork,
• collaboration,
• public communication of research,
• decision making,
• career advancement

• Two 10/12 week miniprojects (summer term, summer
  vac)
• 3 year PhD projects each having two
  supervisors (different depts)
• curently listed research areas
• Agent-based modelling
• Networks and Emergent Behaviour
• Self-Organisation and Assembly
• Non-linear Dynamics
• Spatio-temporal Complexity
• Management Bounding of Complexity

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People and Resources

• EPSRC 4.1M University contributions
• External support from Land Rover, BAS, RAND, IBM,
  HP, Dept of Health, NHSI, UK MetOffice.
• Dedicated hothouse Centre (in Maths Stats
  extension)
• 31 x 4-year studentships split across four intake
  years
• 3 Assistant Professors 0.5 Director 0.1 Chair
  (5 years)
• 3 RCUK Fellows
• Interest -gt involvement from associated staff in
  12 departments.

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Hirings
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Student Recruitment target 7 or 8 EPSRC funded

• Over 100 applications/serious enquiries to April
  07, 30 EPSRC eligible 5 EU.
• EPSRC Offers (acceptance info informal)Feb
  Warwick Physics - acceptedMar York Math/CS
  acceptedDec Leicester Physics accepted then
  (?now)Apr Warwick Maths apparently
  acceptingApr Imperial Physics apparently
  accepting Apr Cambridge Physics
  declinedtwo interviews of interest pending
• O/S EU offersHong Kong with Warwick funding
  rejected!Iran (via Sweden/Chalmers) no
  responsetwo of interest pending

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Interim housing Physical Sciences Building to
Easter 08

• Teaching Room PS0.17A (here)
• Student study area (each has own desk)
• Room PS001 shared with CSC Masters students
• Upstairs
• Overflow options sharing with Physics Research
• Common Room (lunch today)
• Offices in PS
• Director, Administrator,
• 2 Ass Profs (Nicodemi, Muckerjee),
• 1 RCUKF (Somfai)
• 1 hot desking by other DTC personnel

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Zeeman Building Extension completion Easter 08
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GROUND
FIRST
SECOND
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Social Sciences pitch to ESRC

• Information age -gt data deluge
• Already revolutionising biology
• Social science area of opportunity
• Seek to complement EPSRC support
• Research fellows
• PhD places social science orientation and
  problems BUT training in and developing
  science-based methods
• High employability

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European Dimension

• Framework 7 Initial Training Network call stage
  1 closes 7 May.
• Ca 2ME bids with 4-6 nodes.
• Focus to be on structured training, boosting
  employability and career.
• Early stage researchers PhD students
• p/doc positions tricky.

• Warwick leading bid, with other nodes
• ISI Torino Mario Rasetti
• Institut des Systemes Complexes, Paris Paul
  Bourgine
• Max Planck Institute Leipzig Jurgen Jost
• ETH Zurich Frank Schweitzer

• Our industrial partners a key ingredient.

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Chronology (1)
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Chronology (2)
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(No Transcript)
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Research Seminars Warwick Complexity Forum

• Keith Briggs, BT Some hard graph problems in
  telecoms
• Richard Connors, Institute for Transport Studies,
  Leeds Minimising the Cost of Anarchy in Urban
  Road Networks
• Tim Palmer, European Centre for Medium Range
  Weather Forecasting Reliability of
  Projections of Climate Change
• David Sumpter, Oxford The collective
  behaviour of animals from locusts, ants,
  chickens, pigeons to humans
• Jack Cohen, University of Warwick I am not a
  heat engine
• Dimitris Vavoulis, Warwick Computer Science
  Biophysical modelling of single neurons and small
  neural networks.
• Colm Connaughton (CNLS, LANL, NM, USA) Finite
  size effects in turbulent inverse cascades.
• Ana Sendova-Franks, UWE Mathematical Sciences
  Ant Colonies as Complex Systems

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Y Timofeeva Modelling calcium waves
Fire-Diffuse-Fire model - a minimal model for
Ca2 waves

• Biologically realistic, but computationally
  cheap
• Ideal for exploring the effects of spatial
  heterogeneity and stochastic Ca2 release
  events

Living cell
FDF model
Parker lab (Irvine)
Clapham lab (Boston)
Spiral waves in living cells
Spiral wave in FDF model
N Callamaras et al., J. Physiol., 1998
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Oleg Zaboronski HDD decoding
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Prof RC Ball
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Ellak Somfai
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Student-side

• Four years full funding
• Systematic training
• Taught -gt Miniprojects (2)-gt PhD Project
• Dedicated new staff from across
• Physics (2), Mathematics(2), Computer Science,
  Statistics
• Drawing on nationally acclaimed programme of
  transferrable skills training (MOAC)
• Dedicated Research Centre

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Schedule and Resources

• Land Rover,
• British Antarctic Survey,
• RAND Europe Ltd,
• IBM UK Ltd,

• Hewlett-Packard Ltd,
• Dept of Health NCCRCD
• NHS Inst for Innovn Improvemt
• UK MetOffice.

Further Support
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Zeeman Building Extension completion Easter 2008
Zeeman Building Extension Completion Easter 2008
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Complexity first floor