Complex Systems and Dynamics

The aim of the program is to provide students with a curriculum on dynamics, complex networks, and mathematical and data analysis techniques which contributes to both the fundamental understanding of these problems as well as enable technology useful in these real-life contexts.

The focus of the I2MP-CSD is on training students to find solutions for the complex problems that we encounter in the real world and in the laboratory. Major examples of such problems include climate systems, brain dynamics and function, epidemics and spread of infectious diseases, fake news propagation, the behavior of banking and other financial networks as well as numerous others. The analysis of such systems and the prediction of catastrophes, such as climate change and stock market crashes that occur in them has enormous practical importance. To find solutions to such problems requires the development of new techniques of mathematical modelling together with data science-based analysis. The aims of the program are two-fold, to enable students to identify and understand the key elements which can lead to the understanding the behavior of such complex systems, as well as to data driven approaches which can analyze and predict the behavior of such systems.

Towards this end, the I2MP program in CSD interfaces the state-of-art techniques of physics and dynamics-based modelling with recent developments in Data Sciences. The curriculum is therefore designed for students to gain expertise in both the techniques that enable the handling of big data, as well as mathematical modelling and the analysis of dynamical behavior. More details are available in the website https://web.iitm.ac.in/ccsd.

The Complex Systems and Dynamics program is therefore truly interdisciplinary in that it encompasses the fields of engineering and technology, science, mathematics, economics, and humanities. The importance and impact of this interdisciplinary area has received recent recognition via the 2021 Nobel prize in physics.