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SYDE 730

Selected Topics in Societal-Environmental Systems

Graduate

Winter 2022 · Topic 1: Complex Systems

Readings

  • P. Fieguth, Introduction to Complex Systems (2nd Ed.) 2021, (available from UW Library)
    2nd Ed. · unspecified
Winter 2022 · Topic 2: The Healthcare System

Topics

  • History and organization of Canadian healthcare
  • Single- and multi-payer systems and federal/provincial responsibilities
  • Ontario Health Teams and local health networks
  • Patient journeys and healthcare practitioners
  • Acute care, long-term care, home care and primary care
  • Health-system modelling
  • Healthcare procurement and technology adoption
  • Health records and privacy
  • Standards for healthcare information exchange

Readings

  • Health and Health Care Delivery in Canada
    Thompson · 3rd · required
    2020.
  • Hospital Operations: Principles of High-Efficiency Healthcare
    Hopp and Lovejoy · required
    2013.
  • Additional readings and podcasts are posted on LEARN; subject-matter experts give presentations.
    unspecified
Winter 2021 · Complex Systems

Topics

  • Systems theory
  • Nonlinear systems
  • Non-Gaussian / heavy-tailed / power-law distributions
  • Complex and self-organizing systems; subsequent items are proposed research/project topics.
  • Measures of complexity – how do we measure or quantify complexity?
  • Better nonlinear fluid flow examples — vortex shedding, cloud patterns, whistling
  • Game theory / Nash equilibrium, particularly those equilibria which are problematic / troubling
  • Nonlinear dynamics in layer-by-layer deep networks
  • Decoupling of nonlinear systems?
  • Simple model or explanation of instability of spinning tops (e.g., rounded paperweights)
  • Some sort of nonlinear circuit example; ideally one parameterized, so that nonlinearity disappears, for example having a diode (or maybe milder nonlinear element) in parallel with a resistor: linear at R=0, nonlinear for R>0
  • Social systems: their fixed points and other dynamics
  • Simple simulations of emergence, beyond sand-pile and forest-fire models already in place?
  • Universality of Tracy-Widom distributions and complex systems
  • Third-order phase transitions (related to Tracy-Widom distributions)
  • Practical examples of non-normal behavior
  • Cascading failures --- simulation, models, analytical results
  • Criticality – better definition?, examples?
  • Simple discontinuous system?
Sources