Students trained in mathematics and the natural sciences rarely are prepared to deal with complex social issues suggested by these problems. Our program will provide the skills and background for students from many different fields to address complex social problems of national and international importance. The program will treat such issues as energy availability, resource allocation, population growth, economic and political development, international security, health challenges, sustainable development, and communications needs, using physical, technological, environmental, cultural, and socio-political frameworks of analysis. The program will emphasize computer modeling of complex situations as a route to problem solving. A risk assessment approach is often used in contemporary settings to help determine optimal approaches to policy issues, and training in this approach is increasingly important.
Social systems are difficult to understand primarily for two reasons.
First, these systems are composed of several different subsystems which interact on different time and space scales. Important interactions occur at the individual, family, neighborhood, city, state, and international levels, and these interactions include different kinds of institutions. These interactions may produce noticeable events that span a period of time ranging from just a few days to more than a century. The inclusion of effects involving so many time and spatial scales makes prediction extremely difficult, and computer models may be the only hope for reliable policy recommendations. Second, even if social systems are composed of simple elements, the non-linear dynamics in most social systems make prediction very difficult.