Tara Vinodrai is an Assistant Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) and the Department of Geography and Environmental Management as well as an Assistant Director of the Economic Development Program (EDP) at the University of Waterloo. She is interested in the geography of innovative activity, the dynamics of urban […]
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Mark Weber’s research interests include cooperation, trust, the social facilitation of leadership, negotiations, the role of values in decision-making, and social and organizational identity processes. Although his research focuses on social psychology in organizations and systems, he also has a special interest in how micro-level processes drive meso- and macro-level phenomena […]
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John Whalley is a William G. Davis Chair in International Trade and Professor of Economics at the University of Western Ontario, and a Distinguished Fellow at CIGI. Professor Whalley received his PhD from Yale University (1973). In addition to his roles at CIGI and the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Whalley is a […]
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Speaker: Dr. Marc Hurwitz, Assistant Professor in the School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University and President of Flipskills Consulting
Title: Leadership: It’s pretty simple… by itself
Date: Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
Category: Seminar
Abstract:
The study of leadership dates back to the earliest records of […]
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Speaker: Dr. Tobias Schröder
Title: Changing minds about cars: Modeling the adoption of innovations in transportation
Date: Tuesday, February 26th 2013
Category: Seminar
Abstract:
Dr. Schröder will present an agent-based model of the likely future adoption of electric vehicles by consumers in the city of Berlin, Germany. The […]
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Speaker: Dr. Dan Lizotte, Assistant Professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo
Title: Possible Futures: Complexity in Sequential Decision-Making
Date: Tuesday, January 22nd 2013
Category: Seminar
Abstract:
Effective sequential decision-making hinges on our ability to consider many possible futures. Identifying which futures […]
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Speaker: Dr. Madhur Anand, Professor in Environmental Biology at the University of Guelph
Title: Human-Environment Sustainability and Alternative Stable States in Mosaic Ecosystems
Date: Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
Category: Seminar
Abstract:
We all know that humans are part of the so-called ‘environment’, but the collapse of human-dominated ecosystems in not so distant […]
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Speaker: Carla Gomes
Title: Computational Sustainability
Date: Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
Category: Non-WICI Event
Abstract:
Computational Sustainability is a new interdisciplinary research field with the overall goal of developing computational models, methods and tools to help manage the balance between environmental, economic and societal needs for a sustainable future. In this talk […]
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Title: Crime and Terror: Mathematical Exploration and Modeling of Dark Networks
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2011
Category: Non-WICI Event
Abstract:
The study of Complex Networks (CN), that is, unstructured graphs, has originated in the 1970s in sociological research and has since been applied […]
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Speaker: Dr. Dendoncker, Director of Namur Research Group on Sustainable Development (NaGRIDD). Department of Geography, University of Namur, Belgium.
Title: Participatory Valuation and Modelling of Ecosystem Services under Land Use Change: Example from the VOTES project (Belgium) and Perspectives for Future Research
Date: Friday, June 1st, 2012
Category: Non-WICI Event
Speaker: Dr. Darla Munroe (The Ohio State University)
Title: The interdependence of forest transition pathways at the household level in Yunnan, China
Date: Wednesday, April, 25th, 2012
Category: Seminar
Abstract
Prior research on “forest transitions,” or the observation of sustained forest recovery following past forest clearing, has often employed the concept of […]
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Speaker: Matto Mildenberger
Title: Exploring the Possibility Space of Ideological Change
Date: Thursday, March 29th, 2012
Category: Seminar
Matto Mildenberger, PhD Candidate at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (Yale University), summarizes recent political science and psychology literature on ideology with the broad aim of informing research on ideological change. The […]
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Speaker: Shreyas Sundaram
Title: Reaching Agreement in Complex Networks: Avoiding the Influence of Extreme Agents
Date: Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
Category: Seminar
Professor Shreyas Sundaram describes a special case of information diffusion where all nodes in the network synchronize (or reach agreement) on some parameter of interest. He focuses on a class […]
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Speaker: Steve Mock (WICI Affiliate Researcher)
Title: National Identity and the Liberal State in a Post-Growth Economy
Date: Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Category: Seminar
Abstract:
The powering-down of the world economy ultimately mean re-localization to relatively autonomous, self-sufficient communities. Steven Mock will argue, however, that it is a mistake to assume […]
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Speaker: Joshua Armstrong
Title: Clearing the Fog of Geriatrics: Applying Complex System Thinking to the Health and Care of Older Adults
Date: Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Category: Seminar
Joshua Armstrong, PhD Candidate in Health Studies & Gerontology (University of Waterloo), discusses the application of complex systems thinking to the health and care […]
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Speaker: Michael Beeler
Title: Modeling Complex Healthcare Environments using Discrete-Event Simulation: A Case Study of Mass Immunization Clinics
Date: Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Category: Seminar
Michael Beeler (University of Toronto) provides a non-technical overview of how discrete-event simulation (DES) can be used to understand and manage a wide range of phenomena that […]
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Speaker: Katherine Larson
Title: Social Distance Games
Date: Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
Category: Seminar
Professor Kate Larson, Associate Professor with the Cheriton School of Computer Science (University of Waterloo), lectures on coalitional games. These games involve players interacting together in tandem to accomplish more together than they would individually. Her work, done […]
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Speaker: Mark Hancock
Title: Leveraging Physical Actions to Interact with Digital Surfaces
Date: Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
Category: Seminar
Mark Hancock, Assistant Professor in the Department of Management Sciences (University of Waterloo), lectures on how people can start thinking of their bodies as an extension of the virtual world. He discusses studies […]
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Speaker: Monica Cojocaru
Title: Objective and subjective factors: modelling consumer behaviour from individual to population scale
Date: Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Category: Seminar
Dr. Monica Cojocaru, Associate Professor of Mathematics (University of Guelph), discusses her current research on the dynamic modeling approaches to population behavior incorporating both objective and subjective decision factors. […]
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Speaker: Shreyas Sundaram
Title: Diffusing Information and Reaching Agreement in Networks: Convergence and Resilience
Date: Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
Category: Seminar
Professor Shreyas Sundaram of the University of Waterloo provides an overview of some recent approaches to analyzing the dynamics of information propagation in networks. He describes how tools from Markov chain […]
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Speaker: Mike Batty
Title: Complexity, Scaling and Cities
Date: Thursday, March 31, 2011
Category: Talk
While in the past, systems were often understood as static, controllable, and well-defined, new research reveals that many systems are chaotically dynamic and unclassifiable. In this seminar, Mike Batty of the University College London Centre for Advanced […]
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Speaker: Steve Purdey
Title: Steady State Economics
Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Category: Talk
Dr. Steve Purdey of the University of Toronto argues that the emphasis on growth, which has been the focus of the world economy for over 200 years, is no longer sustainable in a world of increasing scarcity. He […]
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Speaker: Marten Scheffer
Title: Early Warning Signs for Critical Transitions
Date: Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Category: Talk
Professor Marten Scheffer of Wageningen University discusses his research on how to discern generic early-warning signals in complex systems that indicate a critical threshold is approaching. Such research is important because tipping points can cause […]
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Speakers: Eric Lambin, Peter Deadman, Raymond Cabrera, and Christophe Le Page
Title: Land-Change Science Seminar
Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Category: Seminar
Speaker #1: Professor Eric Lambin of the University of Louvain and Stanford University discusses the mechanisms through which economic globalization increasingly drives land use change and uses case studies to […]
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Speaker: W. Brian Arthur
Title: How Does Technological Innovation Happen?
Date: Thursday, February 10, 2011
Category: Talk
In this lecture and discussion at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, W. Brian Arthur reviews the thesis of his book The Nature of Technology with Lee Smolin, Frances Westley, and Thomas Homer-Dixon. In his […]
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Speaker: Jukka Pekka Onnela
Title: Harnessing Network Science to Reveal our Digital Footprints
Date: Wednesday, January 26, 2010
Category: Talk
Dr. Jukka Pekka Onnela of Harvard University discusses how social networks are structured by and interact with cell-phone communication patterns. He also outlines his research on how ‘apps’ used in social networking […]
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Speaker: Robert Spekkens
Title: On Ranking Merit: Applying the Page-Rank Algorithm to the Electoral Process
Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Category: Talk
Communities often struggle to rank their members according to some intangible notion of merit using only the opinions of those members and without any pre-existing ranking. Robert Spekkens, a post-doctoral […]
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Speaker: Kevin Dunbar
Title: From DNA to Complex Cognition: How we Learn, Discover, and Create the World
Date: Thursday, November 4, 2010
Category: Talk
Kevin Dunbar has been engaged in studying how people engage in complex reasoning, social interactions, and real-world problem solving for over 20 years. He will discuss the key […]
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Speaker: John R. Clymer
Title: Simulation-Based Engineering of Complex Systems
Date: Wednesday, October 6 and 7, 2010
Category: Talk, Course
John R. Clymer of California State University Fullerton (CSUF) describes the ExtendSim and OpEMCSS library toolsets as methods for designing models based on complex, context-sensitive interactions.
Simulation-Based Engineering of Complex […]
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Speaker: Leigh Tesfatsion
Title: Testing Institutional Arrangements via Agent-Based Modeling: A U.S. Electricity Market
Date: Monday, March 22, 2010
Category: Talk
Leigh Tesfatsion of Iowa State University focuses on the potential use of agent-based test beds for the systematic exploration of proposed changes in institutional arrangements in advance of actual implementation. She […]
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Speaker: Mike Stone
Title: A Wildfire Case Study in the Canadian Rocky Mountains
Date: Thursday, March 18, 2010
Category: Seminar
The Southern Rockies Watershed Project was established shortly after the 2003 Lost Creek wildfire (> 210 km2) to describe both the early magnitude, and subsequent trajectory of recovery of a broad range […]
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Speaker: Victor Galaz
Title: Can Information Technology Really Help Save the Planet?
Date: Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Category: Talk
Abrupt climate change, “planetary boundaries” and the failure of international institutions to deal with multiple interacting global crises have gained considerable scientific and political attention over the last years. Few sustainability scientists however, […]
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Speakers: Mark Tovey, Michael Neilsen, and Hassan Masum
Title: Open Source Democracy
Date: Monday, February 22, 2010
Category: Talk
Mark Tovey, Michael Nielsen, and Hassan Masum explore how new information and communication technologies might allow for new types of political engagement, problem solving, and collective decision-making. They discuss issues such as collective […]
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Speakers: David Robinson, Ivan Filion, and Kirsten Robinson
Title: Revitalizing the Georgian Bay Fisheries: Complicated, Complex, Contested, and Confused
Date: Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Category: Seminar
A major restoration project for Georgian Bay calls for re-imagining the ecosystems management strategy and its relationship to the local economy. The problem is complicated, and […]
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Speaker: Thomas Homer-Dixon, Stephen Bocking, and Robert Gibson
Title: Will Ecology Dominate the 21st Century?
Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Category: Alternatives Magazine Debate
On Tuesday, January 12, three of Canada’s foremost “ecollectuals” will burn up the podium with a fast-paced discussion that will challenge your eco-ideas and test your eco-vocabulary. […]
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Speaker: J. Doyne Farmer
Title: Laws of Technological Progress
Date: Monday, December 7, 2009
Category: Talk
With the advance of global warming, the predictability of future technological change becomes a pressing and relevant issue. Dr. Doyne Farmer of the Santa Fe Institute compares several different hypotheses for technological improvement using different examples […]
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Speaker: Philip Beesley
Title: Responsive Environments: Transitional Fields
Date: Monday, November 23, 2009
Category: Talk
Professor Philip Beesley of University of Waterloo’s School of Architecture describes field-oriented experimental architecture installations, including the recent Hylozoic Soil and Epithelium series. Drawing from the interactive behaviors of these installations, he discusses the implications of architecture […]
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Speaker: Brad Bass
Title: Revitalizing Central Place Theory: Cities as Experiments on a Dynamic Fitness Landscape
Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Category: Talk
Cities are analogous to peaks on a dynamic fitness landscape. Brad Bass of the University of Toronto discusses this concept theoretically and illustrates it using a geographical analysis of […]
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Speaker: Karen Houle
Title: Is our Concept of Moral Responsibility Newtonian?
Date: Monday, October 26, 2009
Category: Talk
Professor Karen Houle of the University of Guelph argues that, while we now recognize the genuine complexity of many issues, we have yet to rethink the basic—and oddly Newtonian—concepts we use to make normative […]
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Speaker: Dawn Parker
Title: Market Activity, Landscaping Behavior, and Carbon Sequestration in Ex-Urban Landscapes
Date: Thursday, October 1, 2009
Category: Talk
Professor Dawn Park of the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo reports on a collaborative research project with the University of Michigan exploring land-use change and carbon sequestration in […]
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Speaker: George Francis
Title: World and Other Systems: A Challenge to WICI
Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Category: Talk
For WICI to realize its potential, argues Professor George Francis of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo, it should draw upon a cadre of people familiar with different approaches to […]
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Speaker: Lee Smolin
Title: Symmetries in Economic Models and their Consequences
Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Category: Talk
Professor Lee Smolin of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics examines the fundamental Arrow-Debreu model of market equilibrium in neoclassical economics. He asks the basic question always raised by physicists when confronting a new […]
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Speaker: Matthew Hoffman
Title: Governance Avalanches: A Self-Organized Criticality Perspective on Innovation in Global Governance
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Category: Talk
Professor Matthew Hoffman of the University of Toronto explores the applicability of theories of self-organized criticality to the study of innovation in global governance. He presents both an agent-based model […]
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Speaker: Frances Westley
Title: Complexity Approach to Change and Transformation
Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Category: Talk
Social innovation alters the basic routines and beliefs of a society, but the durability and scale necessary to generate this momentum requires enough interactive opportunity and action. Professor Frances Westley, Director of Social Innovation Generation […]
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Speaker: Keith Hipel
Title: Trade versus the Environment: Strategic Settlement from a Systems Engineering Perspective
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Category: Talk
Professor Keith Hipel of System Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo discusses applications of graph theory to conflict analysis and resolution. His research focuses on local, national, and global […]
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Speaker: Thomas Homer-Dixon
Title: Ingenuity Theory: Adaptation Failure and Societal Crisis
Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Category: Talk
Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon of the Balsillie School of International Affairs draws from his research on how societies adapt to complex stress to explore the factors making the world’s problems harder to solve and the […]
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Speaker: Brenda Zimmerman
Title: Applications of Complexity Science to Healthcare
Date: Thursday, December 11, 2008
Category: Talk
Professor Brenda Zimmerman of the Schulich School of Business examines how complexity science has changed behaviors, decision making, and design in healthcare practice and public policy in the UK, USA, and Canada.
Speaker: Paul Thagard
Title: Changing Minds about Climate Change
Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Category: Talk
Paul Thagard, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, addresses how neurocomputational models of explanatory and emotional coherence can explain belief change and resistance. He discusses how feedback loops can influence minds and societies at […]
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Speaker: Stuart A. Kauffman
Title: The Evolution of Economic Wealth and Innovation
Date: Monday, October 27, 2008
Category: Talk
Stuart Kauffman, one of the founders of the field of complex systems, explains the principles that he proposes underlie innovation and economic growth. He illustrates these principles with real world examples from his […]
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