The ASSYST Project
COSI-ICT
The new 2008-2011 coordination action ASSYST (coordinator: Jeff Johnson) is funded from the FET Proactive initiative Science of Complex Systems for Socially Intelligent ICT (COSI-ICT). The COSI-ICT programme has four integrated projects and ASSYST. The work packages of ASSYST are closely aligned with the activities of the Complex Systems Society.
THE ASSYST WORKPACKAGES
WP1: Kickoff Meeting and Roadmap & Promoting CS Research
The kickoff meeting will be hosted by the Complex Systems Society at the Institut des Systèmes Complexes Paris in march 2009. The annual roadmap of ASSYST will be adopted as the roadmap of the Society. ASSYST will promote CS & COSI-ICT research by publishing success stories and seeking media coverage, and lobbying policy makers at national and European levels for CS research support. This includes liaising with local funding council and European structures such as the ERA and complexity.net.
WP2: Coordinating Scientific Meetings
ASSYST will organise many scientific meetings in Europe, in the new member states, in the candidate states, with the USA and South America, with Japan, China and India, and with Africa. These meeting will include workshops and schools. Apart from connecting scientists and enabling scientific interchange, these meetings will be a source of information for the roadmap and policy actions of WP1.
WP3: Coordinating Private Sector Applications of Complex Systems Science
ASSYST will seek to make better connections between complex systems scientists and potential business users of complex systems science. With the CSS it will set up one week courses for students to learn how CS is used in business.
WP4: Coordinating Public Sector Applications of Complex Systems Science
ASSYST will seek to make better connections between complex systems scientists and potential public sector users of complex systems science. With the CSS it will set up one week courses for students to learn how CS is used in the public sector.
WP5: Coordinating Conference Support
ASSYST will support the European Conference on Complex Systems, and an annual meeting in Venice on Mathematics in the Science of Complex Systems. ASSYST will also foster cooperation with ESSA (The European Social Simulation Society).
WP6: Coordination Open Education
ASSYST will work with the CSS to define a ‘core curriculum’ for complex systems to include curricula for mathematics, statistics, computer science and simulation, and physics. Mastering the core curriculum will be necessary for the title of European PhD in Complex Systems to be awarded by the CSS. ASSYST will provide information on CS courses and schools around Europe and elsewhere. It will hep the CSS create teaching materials and resources for the core curriculum.
WP7: Internet Coordination the CS Community & CSS Information Services
ASSYST will provide technical support for the CCS web site, and have a person dedicated to providing context for the web site. Ideally the CSS web site should be ‘the place to go’ for all information relating to complex systems.
THE COSI-ICT PROJECTS
QLECTIVES (IP) aims to understand, experiment with, design and build cooperative socially intelligent ICT systems that will enable and support emergent quality collectives (communities). Coordinator: Nigel Gilbert
EPIWORK (IP) addresses the development of a framework for an epidemic forecasting infrastructure. Coordinator: Prof. Alessandro Vespignani
SOCIONICAL (IP) will develop complexity science based modelling, prediction and simulation methods for large scale socio-technical systems. The focus is on the specific example of Ambient Intelligence based smart systems. The work will study global properties and emergent phenomena that arise from local feedback loops and their coupling. Coordinator: Paul Lukowicz
CYBERMOTIONS (IP) aims to understand the process of collective emotion formulation in e-communities as a spontaneous emergent behaviour occurring in complex techno-social networks. Coordinator: Janusz Holyst.
