A complex systems approach to education in Switzerland

The insights gained from the study of complex systems in biological, social, and engineered systems enables us not only to observe and understand, but also to actively design systems which will be capable of successfully coping with complex and dynamically changing situations. The methods and mindset required for this approach have been applied to educational systems with their diverse levels of scale and complexity. Based on the general case made by Yaneer Bar-Yam, this paper applies the complex systems approach to the educational system in Switzerland. It confirms that the complex systems approach is valid. Indeed, many recommendations made for the general case have already been implemented in the Swiss education system. To address existing problems and difficulties, further steps are recommended. This paper contributes to the further establishment complex systems approach by shedding light on an area which concerns us all, which is a frequent topic of discussion and dispute among politicians and the public, where billions of dollars have been spent without achieving the desired results, and where it is difficult to directly derive consequences from actions taken. The analysis of the education system's different levels, their complexity and scale will clarify how such a dynamic system should be approached, and how it can be guided towards the desired performance

Underwater Vehicles

For the latest twenty to thirty years, a significant number of AUVs has been created for the solving of wide spectrum of scientific and applied tasks of ocean development and research. For the short time period the AUVs have shown the efficiency at performance of complex search and inspection works and opened a number of new important applications. Initially the information about AUVs had mainly review-advertising character but now more attention is paid to practical achievements, problems and systems technologies. AUVs are losing their prototype status and have become a fully operational, reliable and effective tool and modern multi-purpose AUVs represent the new class of underwater robotic objects with inherent tasks and practical applications, particular features of technology, systems structure and functional properties

Collective Behaviour: From Cells to Humans

Living in organised groups is a strategy that can be observed in a multitude of diverse species. Among such species, the behaviour of an individual on their own is not the same as within a group: the environment is modified by the presence of more subjects, individuals interact with each other, and from those interactions complex patterns of behaviour can emerge. Some species of animals almost exclusively exist as groups, and as a consequence, studying them in a social context is the only way to understand their behaviour in nature. This is the idea that drives all the research presented in this thesis: the particular behaviour exhibited by the group is so robust that it will emerge even in a very simplified environment. By observing the individual and the group in those simplified experimental conditions, it is possible to deduce rules that might govern the interaction. The importance of interactions in the group’s behaviour can then be demonstrated by implementing a computer model of agents following those rules and comparing it with natural and experimental behaviour. This thesis presents different examples of such analyses, and gives illustrations of the range of questions that can be answered through this method. Groups of stem cells, juvenile sea bass and human beings were successively observed and tracked in suitable environments, with or without perturbation. The data extracted from those experiments were then processed so as to correct recording errors, and individual and collective behaviours were derived from those data, returning new insights on the nature of the interaction at the individual level, their consequences at the global level, as well as the effects of the interaction on both. Finally, I present the computer models derived from those analyses. Many systems in nature share this property of global behaviours emerging from deterministic local interaction, and as a consequence studies of this kind could shed light on important questions, of which cancer treatment, ocean acidification and human organisations are but a few examples