Title: Applications of Complexity Science to Engineered Systems

Speaker: Jackson Mayo, Sandia National Laboratories, CA

Date/Time: Monday, December 13, 2010, 2:00 pm Mountain Time       

Location: CSRI Building/Room 90 (Sandia NM)

Brief Abstract: Complexity science offers new modeling and design approaches to confront the vast state spaces of modern engineered systems. We discuss the spectrum of complexity from analyzable to irreducible systems, and the differences between complex systems that are adaptive (highly optimized tolerance, HOT) and non-adaptive (self-organized criticality, SOC). Illustrations of both SOC and HOT are given. We discuss research that can impact verification and validation of complex system models through understanding of well-conditioning and robustness. An example of robustness in digital circuit design illustrates some of these principles. Finally, the consequences of irreducible complexity for cybersecurity motivate a strategy for creating robust software that adaptively eliminates vulnerabilities by exploiting a biological analogy.

CSRI POC: Bruce Hendrickson, 505-845-7599