MINOR MAKEOVER

The Complex Systems Minor requirements have been restructured to provide more flexibility, and to be less complex(!) going forward. The new requirements will apply to students declaring the minor after January 1, 2023.

The new Minor curriculum is detailed on the Complex Systems Minor page. The existing requirements will also remain on this page in the tab at the bottom.

TWO NEW COURSES OFFERED THIS WINTER

The Center for the Study of Complex Systems is pleased to offer these two exciting new courses:

CMPLXSYS 325 - Memes, Measles and Misinformation

This course explores how contagious processes can help us understand a range of different phenomena observed in the real world—from infectious disease transmission, to the spread of information, misinformation, and disinformation. We also explore the feedbacks and interactions between many of these different transmission systems. We examine these questions through four main course modules: 1) infectious disease transmission, 2) networks, heterogeneity, and the spread of memes, 3) misinformation and disinformation, and 4) interactions and feedbacks between contagious systems. Example topics will include why misinformation and disinformation may sometimes spread more widely than true information, the development of the anti-vax movement, and an exploration of the dynamics of masking behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meets distribution Requirement: MSA

Meets General Requirements: BS; QR/1

 

The second course is a MINI-COURSE (2 Credits) called:

CMPLXSYS 351  Introduction to Social Science Data

This course will provide an introduction to the programming language Python as a tool for loading, manipulating, and exploring social science datasets. We will begin with basic Python syntax and progress to more complicated tasks such as parsing, cleaning, imputing, and visualizing data, and we will pay particular attention to the skills needed and challenges faced when working with social science data. The bulk of the work in this course will be reading and coding a set of five lab assignments and a final project. Prior experience with Python is not required. 

Course Aims: 

• Develop familiarity with basic Python syntax, including lists, dictionaries, loops, and function definitions 

• Perform basic data exploration tasks using the standard Python modules Pandas and Seaborn

• Distinguish common file formats for storing data, and merge related datasets

• Incorporate course content into an independent final project

 • Hopefully have some fun too :) 

Meets distribution Requirement: MSA

COMPLEX SYSTEMS COURSES MEET DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS:

The Complex Systems courses listed below, now meet the distribution and general requirements as indicated.

CMPLXSYS 251 'Computational Social Sciences' now meets the following requirements: Social Science and Quantitative Reasoning (QR/1)

CMPLXSYS 270 'Intro to Agent-Based Modeling' now meets the Mathematical and Symbolic Analysis (MSA) and (QR/1) requirements

CMPLXSYS 351 - NEW MINI-COURSE 'Introduction to Social Science Data' meets the MSA requirement

CMPLXSYS 325 - NEW COURSE 'Memes, Measles and Misinformation' meets the MSA; Bachelor of Science; and (QR/1) requirements