Conferences on Complex Systems 2015 (CCS’15), formerly the European Conferences on Complex Systems, went global for the first time this year in Tempe, Arizona. From September 28 to October 2, the Doubletree Tempe hotel/conference center hosted a variety of talks on complex systems. This included 18 plenary talks, 21 full-day satellite sessions, 12 half-day satellite sessions, 7 different parallel-track sessions on different focuses within complex systems, 3 ignite sessions where speakers were given just 5 minutes to share their ideas, and 83 posters. The conference was sponsored by the Complex Systems Society, the Santa Fe Institute, and Arizona State University (ASU).
There were a number of pre-conference tutorials held at ASU on complex systems topics such as agent-based modeling and information theory on the Sunday and Saturday preceding the talks. Attendees of this conference come from all areas of science, and these tutorials helped establish a common language.
The first day opened with plenary speakers describing the broad potential of complex-systems thinking for expanding our understanding of a wide variety of topics, from ethnic violence, to ecosystem collapse, biological aging, and much more. This set the tone of the conference as one in which all questions were on the table. This was appropriate, as there was a wide variety of scientists hoping to expand their understanding of the broader principles that link their fields together, and many hoping that insights from other fields might lead to breakthroughs in their own field. It was a truly interdisciplinary conference, with an atmosphere of optimism about the potential for collaboration to help scientists understand and solve many of the big problems facing them.
The week’s schedule switched back and forth between plenary talks and smaller parallel sessions, where participants were free to explore more targeted interests. Parallel-track sessions varied from sessions focused on the the foundations of complex systems, such as network dynamics and control, to sessions exploring the complexity of language, linguistics, cognition and social systems. I found myself wandering to parallel sessions far outside my field of expertise (statistical physics) and being drawn in by the unconventional yet familiar approach to addressing unfamiliar questions.
The full-day and half-day satellite sessions provided an opportunity to delve deeper into an area of one’s choosing. I attended and spoke at the day-long satellite session organized by Martin Hilbert and James Crutchfield: “The Industrial Age and Thermodynamics; The Information Age and … What?” After the day’s talks, we took the last hour of the session to discuss and synthesize what we’d learned. It was a privilege to have an opportunity to talk openly with other experts about where the field is going.
While the hotel wasn’t located close to a city center, the conference organizers made sure to provide a plethora of evening entertainment. There was line dancing, a patio party with drinks, hot dogs, and cool technology demos, like a dancing robot. We also got to explore the Desert Botanical Garden. Later in the night, people would gather by the pool in the center of the hotel to chat or just play in the pool. Because of the warm Arizona weather, the pool was comfortable even near midnight.
The community at CCS’15 was vibrant. It gave me an opportunity to talk with so many scientists from different fields: primate behaviorists, game theorists, ecologists, etc. Everyone was eager to see how their fields could be pushed in new and bold directions. I’m eager to attend the next Conferences on Complex Systems and see how the science of complexity has evolved.
Alec Boyd