Introduction to Complexity | Santa Fe Institute

Introduction to Complexity

Course Syllabus

Updated 1/23/13

Instructor: Melanie Mitchell

Launch date: February 4, 2013

Prerequisites: None

Cost: Free

Credit offered: None, though everyone who successfully finishes the course will receive a certificate of completion from the Santa Fe Institute.

Course length: 11 weeks

Approximate workload: 3-6 hours per week

Quizzes and Exams: Quizzes will be embedded in the lectures. There will also be an online final exam.

Lecture units (approximate 1 per week):

1. What is Complexity?	7. Modeling Social Systems
2. Dynamics, Chaos, and Fractals	8. Networks
3. Information, Order, Randomness	9. Scaling
4. Cellular Automata	10. Cities as Complex Systems
5. Genetic Algorithms	11. Virtual Field Trip; Final Exam
6. Self-Organization in Nature

The Santa Fe Institute thanks the John Templeton Foundation for its generous support of this work.