Complex Networks in Action
September 26th-28th 2012, at the University of Catania, 7th edition of the SICC International School "Topics in nonlinear dynamics" on "Complex Networks in Action", organized this year by the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering (University of Catania) and SICC (Italian Society for Chaos and Complexity).
Complex networks constitute a paradigm pervading many natural or man-made complex systems. Complex networks attract a wide and interdisciplinary audience coming from various fields: from theoretical scientists, to physicists, to engineers, to biologists. Recently, the topic paved the way to new perspectives in different advanced research fields such as brain dynamics (where complex networks have been demonstrated to provide new tools for functional activity characterization), climatology (where they provide a powerful framework to statistically investigate the topology of local and non-local statistical interrelationships), synchronization (where synchronization emerges as a complex interplay between network structure and properties and node dynamics), electronics (where the recent efforts directed towards large-area applications require to deal with complex patterns of interconnectivity), sensor networks (where the structural and evolutionary properties of models of complex networks are explored to design alternative network control methods and effective and robust techniques) and other examples. The idea underlying the School is to focus on such fields where the application of paradigms, concepts and methods from complex network theory revealed to be of great interest both from a theoretical point of view and from an application point of view. The School will thus focus on fields in which complex networks can be seen “in action”.
This Ph.D. School is intended for postgraduate/PhD students from all over Europe and will deal with complex networks and their applications to the following areas: brain dynamics; climatology; epidemics; game theory; synchronization; sensor networks; control; slime mould computers.