The ARC Centre for Complex Systems (ACCS) conducts a world-class research program on the science and engineering of complex systems.
The Centre is a partnership between
- The University of Queensland (Brisbane)
- Monash University (Melbourne),
- Griffith University (Brisbane), and the
- UNSW@ADFA (Canberra)
International collaborating organisations include France’s Centre National de la Research Scientifique and the Indian Institute of Technology. Associate investigators are drawn from other Australian and overseas research organisations, including Boeing, CSIRO and the Santa Fe Institute.
The ACCS was established in 2004 as part of the the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence program.
The Director, Peter Lindsay, and 12 Chief Investigators lead a team of researchers, collaborators and students in their research into the science and engineering of complex systems. See the list of ACCS people.
The ACCS is interdisciplinary, involving leading researchers from a range of disciplines including:
- systems and software engineering,
- visualisation,
- human factors,
- computational mathematics and statistics, and
- relevant application domains including economics, bioscience, and air-traffic control.
The strategic direction of the Centre is guided by the ACCS Advisory Board.
The goal of the Centre is to develop a deeper understanding of fundamental phenomena in complex systems such as how macro-level system properties and behaviours emerge from relatively simple micro-level interactions, what mechanisms enable complex systesm to self-organise, and how complex systems can be managed and controlled.
Further information
- The Growth in Air Traffic, ACCS Director, Peter Lindsay, is interviewed by Robin Williams for ABC Radio's Science Show, July 7 2007
- Annual Reports:
- 2007 Annual Report (pdf, 1.4M)
- 2006 Annual Report (pdf, 0.7M)
- 2005 Annual Report (pdf, 2.8M)
- 2004 Annual Report (pdf, 1M)
- 2003 Annual Report (pdf, 0.3M)
- VLAB, Monash University's Artificial Life Virtual Lab presents simulations to help you understand how complex organisation and behaviour emerges in living systems.
ACCS brochure - provides further general information on the Centre and its research.
A series of demonstrations of some aspects of ACCS research:
- General ACCS
- Modelling neurosphere formation with neurosphere lab
- Building dependable systems (Behavior Trees)
- Modelling from sequence to gene regulatory network to phenotype
- Checking fault tolerance in safety and security-critical systems
