Speaker: Sara de Freitas (Serious Games Institute)

Title: Can Serious Games save lives?

Abstract:

The Lecture from Prof Sara de Freitas will focus upon outlining several grand challenges that face us as a result of global economic downturn, growing population and globalisation. These challenges are exacerbated by the development of interconnected systems which are vulnerable to systematic collapse. At the same time as these real world challenges new technologies and forms such as social networks and online games are becoming more and more pervasive and are now played by increasing numbers of people. This trend towards pervasive social game play is leading to a trend known as gamification, where the use of game elements and metaphors to solve real world problems, motivate learners and raise awareness, to provide therapy and to train hard-to-reach groups is leading to a new trend where games are increasingly used to solve problems and provide engaging education and training. This lecture focuses upon flagship projects in the area of emergency management training, as illustration of the capability of games to be used to save lives and help us to become more robust and resilient in the face of the significant global challenges we face.

Lunch: Group 2

Venue changes for one week due to other commitments. Please note new room for one week only; B3.01 for 27th June 2012

To be held with Professor Matthew Turner and Dr Gareth Alexander

For all Complexity PhD stduents to attend

Colm Connaughton

Thomas House Booking

Speaker: Carsten Grabow (Göttingen)

Title: Impact of Complex Network Topology on Synchronization Dynamics

Abstract:

Synchrony is one of the most common dynamical states emerging on networks. The speed of convergence towards synchrony provides a fundamental collective time scale for synchronizing systems. What impact does the network topology have on this time scale? Here, the small-world model allows for a study of network topologies ranging from completely ordered, grid-like, to completely disordered, random, including intermediate, partially disordered topologies. Although the small-world models based on rewiring have received massive attention both theoretically and in applications, for most of their features analytical predictions are not known to date. In particular, the spectrum of small-world Laplacians - characterizing fundamental asymptotic features - has only been studied for several specific cases and numerically, but a general derivation of reliable analytic predictions is still missing. An analytic mean-field theory for the spectra of small-world models closes this gap. This theory may provide analytical insights to empirically found features of dynamics on small-world networks from various research fields, including biology, physics, engineering and social science.

Lunch: Group 3

Venue changes for one week due to other commitments. Please note new room for one week only; B3.01 for 27th June 2012

To be held with Professor Matthew Turner and Dr Gareth Alexander

For all Complexity PhD stduents to attend

To be held with Professor Matthew Turner and Dr Gareth Alexander

For all Complexity PhD stduents to attend

Andrew Brendon-Penn

Prof Andrew Stuart-Mathematics- co-ordinated by Yvonne in MRC

Dr Thomas House and Dr Mike Tildesley

There will be no Complexity Forum this week due to the DTC / Erasmus Mundus M1 Summer School:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/comcom/events/summerschool2012/

Venue changes for one week due to other commitments. Please note new room for one week only; B3.01 for 27th June 2012

booked by Colm

Speaker: Dr Magnus Richardson

Title: Experimentally verified neuron models and mathematical tools for their analyses

Abstract:

n this talk I will review some of the efforts we have made over the last few years to develop mathematically tractable and experimentally tested models of neocortical neurons and synapses. Using a dynamic IV curve method I will show how surprisingly accurate non-linear integrate-and-fire models can be extracted from a few tens of seconds of intracellular recording. In the context of stochastic synaptic drive, I will outline a simple method for deriving the steady-state and dynamical properties of populations and networks comprised of this class of verified model neuron. I will then go on to cover recent experimental and theoretical work on the effect of the finite amplitude of post-synaptic potentials on integration and transmission between neocortical cells.

Lunch: Group 5

Venue changes for one week due to other commitments. Please note new room for one week only; B3.01 for 27th June 2012

Speaker: Bruno Goncalves (College of Computer and Information Sciences, Northeastern University)

Title: Political Activity in Social Media

Abstract:

Andrew Brendon-Penn

Anca Krannenborg

Anca Kranenborg

Venue changes for one week due to other commitments. Please note new room for one week only; B3.01 for 27th June 2012

Videoconference

To be held with Professor Matthew Turner and Dr Gareth Alexander

For all Complexity PhD stduents to attend