Education

Course Offerings - CSCS (Division 348) 530

CSCS 530: Computer Modeling of Complex Systems -- Winter 2007

Wed, Fri 1:00 - 2:30 pm
Rick Riolo
rlriolo@umich.edu

Note Location
The first class will meet in the meeting place of record, 120 West Hall (an itd/lsa computer lab). As soon as its ready, we will likely meet in the new CSCS computer lab (321 W. Hall) or, for discussions, in the new CSCS commons, 317a West Hall. Important note regarding registration:
The course is currently listed with a cap of 12 students The final course size will be in the 15-20 range. If you are interested in registering, please just get on the waitlist. We will be give priority in this order:

with first-come-first serve within each category.
In past years, everyone who has wanted to stay in the course has been able to, even when the waiting list starts out fairly large, as people sign up now but drop before the term starts, or drop after they find out how hard the course is going to be (! ;-)), etc. So if you are interested, I recommend you get on the waitlist, come to the first class or two, and then we can see what shakes out.
If you have questions, feel free to contact me.

Goals of CSCS 530

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the basic concepts, tools and issues which arise when using computers to model complex (adaptive) systems (CAS). The emphasis will be on agent-based, bottom-up computer models. (We will only briefly look at other approaches.) The bulk of the course will involve "learning by example", i.e., students will:

The course will cover all aspects of the modeling process itself, from model design through implementation to analyzing, documenting and communicating results. NOT focus on the approach/topics covered in typical IOE/OR courses, using DES, etc, to model queues, etc, and it will NOT cover "systems dynamics" approaches, which use equation-based approaches to model "stocks and flows".

The emphasis in CSCS 530 is on "Exploratory Models" of more generic complex (adaptive) systems and/or phenomena (vs. "predictive" models for specific situations), but we will cover issues relevant to both types of models, in particular, model verification and validation.

If you need an introduction to programming in general, to working in the linux/unix enviroment, to programming in the Java/RePast, please consider this short (1 credit) course:
CSCS Short Workshop Series: Basic Computing Skills for Programming Agent Based Models,
offered in fall terms. You also can brush up on Java by going through the programs and assignments listed off that course's web pages.

Classwork and grades for CSCS 530:

The current estimated projects and their influence on a course-grade are as follows: 
0. Class discussion                      20%           
   (An incentive to read and discuss!)
1. Short Project #1                      15%
2. Short Project #2                      25%
3. Term project                          40%
NOTE: Project due dates -- all projects

Important Links:

  • Course Class Schedule for this term -- topics, readings, exercises, handouts.
  • CTools site for the course ( email to cscs530-w07 at ctools.umich.edu )
  • eReserves
  • project #1 group members
  • Participants this term
  • Short project 1 description.
  • Short project 2 description.
  • Term project description.
  • Some useful links (connecting to cscs, repast, java, etc)
  • CSCS Computer Lab online documents.

  • CSCS 530 Outline for Winter 2006, which has a few different readings from this year (and has pointers to even older versions of the course).

    Last Changed: 14 Jan 2007