POTSDAM – Clarkson University's Science Café will feature “Identifying Interactions in Complex Networked Dynamical Systems through a Causation Principle” on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

Understanding cause and effect underpins so many of our most basic scientific questions. Inferring the coupling structure of complex systems from time series data in general by means of statistical and information-theoretic techniques is a challenging problem in “data-enabled science.”

Clarkson University’s W Jon Harrington Professor of Mathematics, Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Director of the Clarkson Center for Complex Systems Science Erik Bollt will discuss an information theoretic approach, but to do so he will first present a bit of the underpinnings of information theory. 

This will allow Bollt to present optimal causation entropy (oCSE) principle to identify the coupling of a complex system from measured data. 

He will include examples such as the functional brain network as inferred by fMRI, structural health monitoring of structures such as bridges, and inferring who is interacting with whom in collective behavior problems that include animals as well as humans.

Science Cafés bring together local university and college professors and townspeople in relaxed, informal settings. 

The speaker makes a short presentation about a topic in his or her field and then opens up the floor to discussion.

Again this semester, the Science Café will be held in Potsdam in the Potsdam Civic Center Community Room at 2 Park Street at 7:15 p.m.

For more information about Clarkson’s Science Café, click https://www.clarkson.edu/science-cafe.