The Office of Research Administration provides this information. Worth Noting Water is flowing into a bathtub at a varying rate, and out of the tub at a steady rate. It seems simple, but the students got it wrong. The problem, Sterman said, demonstrates that complex systems are difficult to deal with because they are counterintuitive. For example, it's hard to estimate the effects of a public policy after five years because one can't keep track of all the variables, let alone understand how they interact.
System dynamics provides tools for tackling complexity.
It's not a computer program or list of procedures that magically fixes problems. Rather, it's a way of approaching the world that can provide insights into how things work. The University has the only undergraduate program in system dynamics in the country. The program is offered by the Social Science and Policy Studies Department. This article was excerpted from a story written by Eric Tapley '01, an interdisciplinary studies major.