Titles and abstracts for invited speakers ( In chronological order )

I will describe the Santa Fe Institutes Complexity Explorer project, which provides educational materials and free online courses (MOOCs) related to complex systems science. I will talk about the general landscape of MOOCs and specifically about my experience creating and running several MOOCs on the SFIs platform. I will also discuss the many curricular materials our team has developed for teaching students about complex systems, from high school through graduate school. • Yang-Yu Liu Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Womens Hospital Tues June 3, 3:30-5pm “Controllability and observability of complex systems” Abstract: The ultimate proof of our understanding of complex systems is reflected in our ability to control them. Although control theory offers mathematical tools for steering engineered systems towards a desired state, a framework to control complex systems is lacking. In this talk I will show that many dynamic properties of complex systems can be quantitatively studied, via a combination of tools from control theory, network science and statistical physics. In particular, I will focus on two dual concepts, i.e. controllability and observability, of general complex systems. Controllability concerns our ability to drive the system from any initial state to any final state within finite time, while observability concerns the possibility to deduce the systems internal state from observing its input-output behavior. I will show that by exploring the underlying network structure of complex systems one can determine the driver (or sensor) nodes that with time-dependent inputs (or measurements) will enable us to fully control (or observe) the whole system.