Precision Convergence Webinar Series: December 14, 2021
Understanding Complex Systems for Real-World Transformation: Multiscale Coordination Dynamics
Presented by Dr. Scott Kelso
Key concepts of complexity science, such as nonlinearity, emergence and self-organization all follow from the old adage that the whole is greater than (or different from) the sum of the parts. The fact that we use the word ‘parts’ (and like words such as components, elements, and even ‘agents’) implies that nature may be broken into separate pieces, basic ‘building blocks’ that somehow are brought together to produce coordinated behavior. The different forms that coordination takes and how it emerges and changes are of great interest to many disciplines, particularly the social and behavioral sciences, neuroscience, biology and physics. The science of coordination (Coordination Dynamics) seeks to understand how coordinated patterns of behavior form and change at many scales and for multiple functions in living things. This talk will review some of the main concepts, methods and tools of Coordination Dynamics along with recent developments of the theory that point to future research targets.
With a high-level panel of leaders in science, technology, on-the-ground action, investment, and policy including Co-Chairs Laurette Dubé and Shawn Brown
About the speaker
Scott Kelso, Ph.D. holds the Glenwood and Martha Creech Eminent Scholar Chair in Science at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) where he is also Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Biological Sciences and Biomedical Sciences. Using a combination of brain imaging, behavioral methods, and computational modeling his research focuses on how people and brains are coordinated on multiple levels and for multiple functions, from cells to cognition and social behavior. His approach to understanding coordination in living things is grounded in the physical concepts of self-organization and the mathematical tools of nonlinear dynamical systems, a theoretical and empirical framework that has ushered in the science of coordination, Coordination Dynamics.
About the series
The Precision Convergence series is launched to catalyze unique synergy between, on the one hand, novel partnerships across sciences, sectors and jurisdictions around targeted domains of real-world solutions, and on the other hand, a next generation convergence of AI with advanced research computing and other data and digital architectures such as PSC’s Bridges-2, and supporting data sharing frameworks such as HuBMAP, informing in a real time as possible the design, deployment and monitoring of solutions for adaptive real-world behavior and context.
The Precision Convergence Webinar Series is co-hosted by The McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE) at McGill University and The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, a joint computational research center between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.
