Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Course Outline
What Students Will Do In This Course
- Read the academic literature, including faculty notes and papers
- Learn and practice some existing analytical methods, mainly network methods
- Appreciate the wide range of domains where theory and methods have been applied
- Critique existing theory and methods
- Share knowledge and experience
- Analyze some real systems in detail
- Distill common concepts that emerge from theory and that apply to many kinds of systems
Learning Objectives
- Gain a research-level understanding of system architecture
- Learn existing theoretical and analytical methods with particular emphasis on network analysis
- Begin to develop some modeling skills of possible benefit in complex engineering systems
- Compare systems in different domains (communication, engineering, organizations, infrastructures, and biology) and understand what influences their architectures
- Apply/extend existing theory and modeling in case studies
Textbook and Readings
Readings are an important part of the course, as they fuel discussions. The required text for this course is:
Watts, Duncan. Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004. ISBN: 9780393325423.
In addition, we will assign additional research literature to read before class. Occasionally we will recommend optional background literature as well.
Grading
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| In-class participation (especially reading connections) | 15% |
| Two homework assignments | 25% |
| Project (60% of final grade) | |
| First status presentation | 10% |
| Modeling status presentation | 15% |
| Final presentation | 15% |
| Final written report | 20% |