Meet new collaborators and learn Complexity Science by doing
Complexity Science is an interdisciplinary and inclusive framework for understanding and acting in Complex systems, such as global pandemics, extreme weather events, electoral politics, economic recovery, poverty, and much more.
By joining a Complexity Weekend cohort, you will experience Complexity from a variety of perspectives, while working on solutions to real-world problems in a team setting, such as:
Join over 250+ participants who have experienced Complexity Weekend already over several past cohorts. Many of the teams formed from our previous events (May 2019, May 2020, Oct 2020) have resulted in productive collaboration and continued work to this day.
This weekend event will be held entirely online (the cohort will be distributed globally)
Pre-Weekend begins: March 21st, 2021
All-interactive Complexity Weekend: Friday, May 21st - Sunday, May 23rd, 2021
(Please plan to participate in the Pre-Weekend experience as much as you can, and for the entirety of the the full Weekend experience)
Gain exposure to the interdisciplinary perspective on Complexity Science and its various applications
Work on important problems in small groups, with guidance from experienced mentors, domain experts, and stakeholders
Join a community of peers, friends, cofounders, and mentors - everyone here is learning by doing within diverse teams
Briony Barr (brionybarr.com) & Lauren Simmonds. Tabula Rasa (detail). Chalk on blackboard paint. 3 x 3 m. 2015.
"I went to Complexity Weekend not really knowing what to expect. I end up surrounded by some of the most brilliant people I've ever met. Great content followed by lots of open time for teamwork. Not one team was judgmental about where I was at in the subject matter. When I wasn't able to find a team immediately, the Organizers helped me find one. I eventually found myself on a team working on physiology (which I know nothing about), but I learned by doing and four months later I ended up the point of contact for the team on a DARPA grant!"
"All of the Facilitators were open and ready to help. Several blew my mind. There was a lot of diversity of ideas, backgrounds, and skill levels. The technology for the conference was used well - especially the Gather platform. It felt like being in person! I do see myself continuing to work with my team. Thank you all for taking the time to make this a great experience."
"My team ranged from people with no coding desire to people who were going to start coding on something as soon as we start bringing it up in the team calls. There was so much energy and enthusiasm that it was contagious. It was a great experience and opportunity to interact with interesting and kind people, and it's something I'll never forget. I'd like to continue working with this community in the future and aim to provide a useful tool at some point along the way."
"There's no love in a carbon atom, no hurricane in a water molecule, no financial collapse in a dollar bill" - Peter Dodds
Aristotle described complex system behavior as when “the whole is more than the sum of the parts.” Complex systems consist of many components interacting with each other and their environment to produce networks of interaction. These networks generate novel information, making it difficult to study components of these systems or subsystems in isolation. Interaction between components makes predicting the future difficult and sometimes impossible. The main goal of Complex Systems Theory is to understand the relationship between these networks of interaction and the "emergent" properties of the system as a whole.
Our global community of practice is focused on creating immediate and lasting impact by applying Complex Systems Theory to the pressing problems of our time.
Joining a Complexity Weekend cohort is for you if you are:
Can you commit to showing up for Complexity Weekend before, during, and (optionally) after the Weekend? The real impact of teams that form over the Weekend involves continued work together through deep time.
All backgrounds welcome - your perspective is needed!
(No direct experience in Complexity Science is required to participate)
Briony Barr (brionybarr.com). Talking on the phone to EW. Fountain pen on paper, digitally inverted. 20 x 20 cm. 2020.
Participants will be working in teams over the weekend to accomplish a goal and fulfill a purpose together. We need to make sure everyone who registers can fully participate over the weekend (to the extent that their timezone permits).
As a global community of practice, we welcome participation from all timezones and plan around the reality of a global virtual event May 21-23, 2021. Weekend events will be occurring at all times over the weekend in the same digital coworking space, so all timezones will be included (more details will be provided to those who register). We focus on forming teams across timezones by allowing for teams to form and evolve over the course of the entire weekend, and by promoting asynchronous teamwork. You'll have time to co-create with your team no matter what timezone you're in.
Get to know the other participants and facilitators, learn about Complexity Science, and co-create Shared Truth with others.
Form a team with other participants, choose a complex problem, and get to work.
The weekend experience is designed to be live and interactive (not just a series of talks)!
Share your team's hard work and vision, make an impact, and stay connected.
Briony Barr (brionybarr.com). Cellular automata score (detail). Oil pencil and acrylic on tyvek. 135 x 90cm. 2021.
Join the next cohort of our Applied Complexity Community of Practice
(Registration fee is offered on a sliding scale)
David John Snowden is a Welsh management consultant and researcher in the field of knowledge management and the application of complexity science. He has pioneered a science-based approach to organizations drawing on anthropology, neuroscience, and complex adaptive systems theory known as the Cynefin framework. His work at Cognitive Edge, a Singapore-based management-consulting firm he founded, is international in nature and assists government and industry with complex issues relating to strategy, organizational decision-making and sense-making. Snowden has previously worked for IBM, where he was a Director of the Institution for Knowledge Management and founded the Cynefin Centre for Organizational Complexity; during this period he was selected by IBM as one of six on-demand thinkers for a world-wide advertising campaign. Prior to that, he worked in a range of strategic and management roles in the service sector.
Managing complexity (and chaos) in times of crisis: a field guide for decision-makers inspired by the Cynefin framework
Before and during Complexity Weekend, Facilitators will lead interactive sessions, mentor teams, provide Complexity Science knowledge/experience, create impactful connections, introduce problem-solving frameworks, tooling, relevant data sets, and more. The Facilitator's mission is to guide the "how" of the Weekend, by enabling teams to embrace diverse perspectives, interface with system stakeholders to gather feedback, draw inspiration from the Complexity literature, and ultimately to help teams accomplish their goals together (whether it be a research proposal, a business plan, or another outcome). Many teams that form at a Complexity Weekend event go on to do great things together, and stay connected to our Applied Complexity community of practice through our monthly online events.
Community Organizing • Full Stack Data Science • Data Center Security • Physics • Complex Thermostatistics
Shaun leads a team of full-stack (Python/Scala) data scientists and engineers at CloudKnox Security, which has developed access management scoring and outlier detection systems to enforce the Principle of Least Privilege throughout data centers worldwide. We are hiring! A Complexity Science enthusiast, Shaun co-founded Complexity Weekend to help empower teams to learn Complexity by doing while working to solve the world's toughest problems together. His personal research interests involve combining Complexity Science with Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics axioms to peek at fundamental properties of emergent phenomena.
Accounting • Finance • Storytelling • Education • Collaboration • Wellbeing
Jax mothers a toddler, loves accounting and finance, and instigates fun projects. She is trained in political economy and business administration and has worked in the charity, commercial, and government sectors in Asia, the United States, and Europe. Her projects include climate innovation, unconventional learning, and bringing accounting and finance to The People. She now resides in London and emanates energy universe-wide.
Design-led Innovation • Transformative and Emergent Leadership • Executive Coaching • Futurism
Probal is the co-founder and CEO of the design-led collective, Depicentre Consulting. He works on the interfaces of business, learning, design, analytics, innovation, and storytelling. With leadership experience across seven countries strengthening his ability to manage cross-cultural and cross-functional virtual teams in complex organizations, he has a passion for aiding content- and culture-driven organizations in making economic, social, ecological, and educational impact.
Public Policy • Tech • Complex Adaptive Systems • Sense-making • Economic Development • Wellness
Jon Alexander Cinman is a futurist and works where public policy and technology intersect. Jon seeks to drive a safe and prosperous technological revolution. He studied Economics and is in an Executive Master of Public Administration program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He’s done management consulting and international economic development, and resides in the US. Jon’s thesis is ‘Building and Facilitating a Unified Healthy Human-Digital Ecosystem’.
Consulting • Problem-Solving • System Science • Violence • Instability
Timothy’s work ranges from sophisticated simulations of violence & instability to systems thinking for business. His blog, InfoMullet.com, provides more context for complex current events and his consulting firm Dialectic Simulations Consulting helps clients ranging from Fortune 1000 to government agencies and military commands. Timothy has an MSc from WPI in Insurgency Dynamics & Simulation Science and is ABD PhD there studying the life-cycle of violent non-state actors using system dynamics.
Social and Behavioral Engineering • Organizational Dynamics • Pedagogy
R. J. Cordés is a researcher focused on Gray Zone Warfare, Knowledge Management Systems, and Sensemaking. He contributes research to a variety of working groups and committees across DoD, IEEE, and the Private Sector working on topics like social and behavioral engineering, systems engineering, data standards, intelligence analysis, and decentralized learning systems.
Nature Connection • Complexity of Well-being • Networking People • Inventing New Forms of Media
Hannah Apricot Eckberg grew up on a rural coastal cattle ranch that instilled a deep connection to the complexity and the simplicity of nature and human relations. She has been a life-long activist and healer, now supporting Permaculture and Regenerative projects around the world through the Abundant Earth Foundation.
Communication • Marketing • Biomimicry • Interculturality • Interdisciplinarity
Michaela is a communication and marketing specialist, translator, cultural mediator, biomimicry practitioner, safari guide, keen naturalist and biology enthusiast. She is looking for links where people have not yet connected the dots. Her Masters in International Relations, and the capacity for abstraction gained from her MBA in Aviation Management, help her handle the multicultural and interdisciplinary impact of communication across diverse fields of application.
Agent-based Modeling • Public Policy • Spatial Analysis • Urban Economics • Python
Bernardo Alves Furtado is a curious learner who has studied architecture, urbanism, geography and economics to become a python agent-based modeler tackling public policy issues. He is a tenured researcher and professor at a government-attached think-tank based in Brasilia, Brazil. He helped put together a comprehensive international Modeling Complex Systems for Public Policies book. Currently, he is finishing the open source model PolicySpace2: modeling real estate and policy.
Ants • Evolution • Geometry • Participation • Active Inference
Daniel is a postdoctoral researcher with primary focus on the distributed physiology and evolutionary genomics in the eusocial insects. He is also interested in topics related to remote teams, cognitive security, and open science. Daniel has been involved in Complexity through located events and online communities of practice such as Complexity Weekend and previously, the Stanford Complexity Group.
Science Communication • Evolutionary Biology • Paleontology • Philosophy of Science
Paleontologist-Futurist Michael Garfield is devoted to helping navigate our age of accelerating weirdness and helping cultivate the curiosity and play we'll need to thrive in it. As host and producer of Future Fossils Podcast and the Santa Fe Institute's "Complexity" Podcast, Michael acts as interlocutor for a worldwide community of artists, scientists, and philosophers — a practice that feeds his synthetic and transdisciplinary "mind-jazz" essays, music, and fine art.
Archaeology • Anthropology • Human Evolution • Technology Change • Human-Environment Interaction
Jenn Huff is a quantitative anthropologist and archaeologist who works on deep time questions about human evolution, human migrations into new landscapes, exchange networks, risk and uncertainty, technology change, and human-environment interactions. She is currently working on a book that looks at human evolution and recent cultural perspectives to explore how humans cooperate; and what that means for us in the past, present, and the future.
Entrepreneurship • Creativity and Innovation • Facilitation • Diversity • Education
Monica Kang is the Founder and CEO of InnovatorsBox® and the Author of 'Rethink Creativity'. She is transforming today’s workforce through the power of creativity. She helps companies around the world rethink culture, leadership and team development by making creativity practical and relatable regardless of industry or job title. Prior to InnovatorsBox®, Monica was a nuclear nonproliferation policy expert.
Optimization • Data Science • Agent-Based Modeling • Bioinformatics • Neuroscience
Bleu is interested in solving complex problems using data sources that are large and diverse. Her PhD research leveraged informatics to understand the biological identity of neural cell subtypes. More recently, she has been using augmented intelligence and agent based modeling to solve problems at industry scale. She has also been exploring how the exploitation of environmental resources establish networks for information transmission.
Biomimicry • Ecology • Design • Systems • Cities
Richard is an award-winning designer with a background in behavioral economics and real estate, with further study in urbanism. He has worked with multi-national organizations around the world on complex challenges, in real estate finance, urbanism, asset management, and product design. Richard rarely gets bored and finds common links between a host of subjects from art, science, nature, and design. Based in York in the UK, Richard spends his quiet time with his wife and two young boys.
Econophysics • Complex Networks • Information Filtering • Financial Markets • Noise and Idiosyncratic Signals
Rosario N. Mantegna is professor of Applied Physics, his research concerns interdisciplinary applications of statistical physics and network science. He is one of the pioneers of econophysics and of economic networks. In 1999, he co-authored the first book on econophysics and published the first paper on similarity based networks. His methods of information filtering are widely used by academicians and practitioners. Rosario has been principal investigator of several research projects.
Complex Adaptive Systems • Culture • Inter-agency Operations • Bioethics • Risk Management • Defence and International Security
Victoria specializes in projects involving complex cultural engagements with both complementary and competing objectives, particularly in high risk and time sensitive scenarios. She is interested in how cultures change and redefine themselves, and how people can erode and stretch defined cultural boundaries, leading to psychologically-led shifts in behavior. Victoria trained in the Defence and Health Sciences, and lectured in the Biomedical sciences for a number of years. She is an avid researcher, working in numerous countries in highly-challenging environments. A keen solo traveller, she has worked and travelled in over 20 countries. She has a passion for languages and music, as well as adventure sports and the wilderness.
R • Machine Learning • AI • Biomedical Engineering • Medical Imaging • Image and Signal Processing • Biostatistics
Prahlad is an engineering professor and data scientist, with cross-industry experience leading and successfully executing on data-science projects. He has served on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Texas at San Antonio. His experience includes data science consulting in a range of real-world projects from predictive maintenance and financial modeling to healthcare supply chain management and algorithmic analysis of medical images for diagnostics, surgical planning and image-guided surgery. He has advised 10+ graduate students and instructed graduate and undergraduate coursework in biomedical engineering, scientific computing, and algorithmic image and signal processing to 100's of students in an academic career that has resulted in over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the literature. Dr. Menon is also the chief data scientist of an award-winning boutique big-data and AI consulting practice.
Neuroscience • Microscopy • Communication • Education • Collaborative Drawing
Alexandra has a background in translational neuroscience studying brain injury in early development. She is now pursuing a PhD examining how immune molecules regulate the proper establishment of connections in the brain. Her research is inherently interdisciplinary, and she hopes to bridge even more fields through Free Energy thinking and collaborative drawing.
Mathematical Modeling • Cryptoeconomics • Distributed Systems • Incentive Design • Mechanism Design
Kris researches Cryptoeconomics and Complex Systems Engineering. With a formal education in technical-economic Mathematics at the University of Technology in Vienna and five years working experience in banking and software integration, he understands the financial and regulatory background at the intersection of real-world and cryptoeconomics. His focus at the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at WU Vienna is the development of token engineering research streams, the creation of network design and incentive mechanism structures, and valuation and modeling of crypto assets. His specializations are agent-based economic modeling, game theory and optimization methods, as well as monetary and environmental policy economics.
Modeling Industrial Complex Systems • Bioinformatics • Evolution • Population Genetics • Genomics
Diamantis Sellis is a complex systems modeler at CosmoTech. He has more than 10 yr of research experience in bioinformatics, genome complexity and population genetics. The past 4 years he started working in the software development industry modeling complex systems. He has studied biology and holds an MS in Bioinformatics from Athens University, Greece, and a PhD in evolutionary biology from Stanford University, US.
Investing • Venture Capital • Entrepreneurship • Genetics • Complexity
Charles Sidman invests in early-stage companies using Angel networks, VC, Crowdfunding and public markets. He is a cofounder of the American Angel Capital Association, past president of Crowdfunding Professional Association, frequent contributor on financial, entrepreneurship, policy and ethical issues, member of numerous investment and professional organizations, and 2018 Special Recognition Honoree of EBAN. He retired as Professor of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, where he was also Professor of Management, College of Business. His education includes PhD (Immunology) from Harvard, MBA (Management) from U. of Cincinnati, and sabbatical study (Complex Systems) at Santa Fe Institute.
Complex Systems Thinking • Design • Learning • Leadership • Futurism
Sudebi is a narrative designer, creative facilitator, educator, futurist & writer. She designs experiences, engagement, and environment that allow people to think and dialogue. By making their thinking and interaction visible to others, she helps people discover their own designs and narratives using different modes and media. She is focused on social, environmental, and cultural issues, inter-weaving design thinking, imagination, complex systems thinking, pedagogy, crafts, visual and performing arts, oral history, ethnography, and research to co-create inclusive possibilities.
Catalysis • Governance • Emergence • Socio-technology • Fun
Deborah has a background co-creating strategy, community, and systems at the intersection of regenerative networks, participatory design, and technology for impact. She lived in Arusha, Tanzania for almost 5 years, building an ecosystem for inclusive innovation in Africa at Twende - a Tanzanian design hub for local-scale innovation - first as Director of Development, then as Executive Director. Deborah is currently working on a handful of participatory governance projects at local and global levels, that are somehow inter-dependent and co-evolving.
Art • Environment • Collaboration • Interdisciplinary • Compassion
Meredith Tromble is an artist and writer who makes installations, drawings, and performances. Her curiosity about the links between imagination and knowledge has stimulated a number of collaborations with scientists, including a long-term residency at the Complexity Sciences Center, UC Davis.
System Dynamics • Operational Research • Modelling
Kerry acquired her skills in system dynamics during her career as a management consultant. She trained with Barry Richmond and Peter Senge and honed her practical skills with many clients. She has applied the approach to every aspect of her life, including horsemanship and relationships. Kerry is a PhD student at the University of Hull. Her research evaluates the potential for systems thinking to transform the learning of students.
Human Macroecology • Sustainability Science • Socio-ecological Systems • Networks • Systemic Thinking
Ecologist that acknowledges the complexity of natural systems, and uses different theoretical tools for unraveling key properties of the desired studied system. Lately, deeply interested in socio-ecological systems, evaluating the drivers structuring human societies and scenarios (based on energy and material use) for achieving (nature-based) sustainability.
Law • Policy • Privacy • Robotics • Design
Jesse Woo is a privacy and technology lawyer and researcher. He was formerly the privacy lead at Aleada Consulting and recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Japan focused on international data flows and privacy regulation. He has also written about the intersection of complexity, robotics, and urban public spaces.
Would you like to be a Facilitator for an upcoming Complexity Weekend event?
Contact [email protected]
What will I get out of participating?
Join our global Applied Complexity community of practice, and come away with a healthy exposure to the depth and breadth of Complexity Science from a variety of perspectives. You will be able to meet new collaborators, co-authors, mentors, and friends while learning together through a hands-on online team experience. Work toward solutions to the most important problems of our time.
Who is Complexity Weekend for?
This cohort-based experience is intended for those who are interested in Complexity Science and are eager to have an immediate and lasting impact while so many Complex systems around us behave in ways that are volatile, harmful, or unsustainable.
What are the prerequisites for attending?
We welcome participants from all backgrounds, time zones, and levels of familiarity with Complexity. Best practice is to have a healthy curiosity and willingness to work outside of your usual expertise and comfort, and a willingness to share your perspective with others. All sessions will be held in English.
Should I do anything to prepare for the conference?
Don't worry about being unprepared, as no one is an expert in all the various fields intersecting with Complexity Science. We've designed the Pre-Weekend experience so that you'll be familiar with all the of people, ideas, and tools in our community of practice before the Weekend begins. If you want to learn more beforehand, perhaps the "Intro to Complexity" course materials from the Santa Fe Institute's Complexity Explorer platform would be best. We'll have Facilitators on hand to help with whatever blocks your team as you work toward a goal and shared purpose together.
Should I come with a problem in mind that I'd like to work on already?
Feel free to come prepared with a complex problem you’d like to gather a team around to solve, or let the creativity flow as you interact with the diverse set of Complexity Thinkers during the event. The choice is up to you.
Who will own whatever is created at the Weekend?
Participants own their work and actively co-design their teams. Solution proposals generated during the event will have explicit co-ownership defined by the teams themselves, and are private by default. Participants and Teams will be given the opportunity to opt-in to having their progress summarized after the event and posted on the Complexity Weekend website. Teams are encouraged, but not required, to present their results at the end of the Weekend. Any degree of open-sourcing is celebrated, but not required.
How can I become a Facilitator?
We are currently seeking Facilitators for our next Complexity Weekend event (in November 2021). Please contact [email protected] if you are interested.
How does the Complexity Weekend community sustain itself financially?
Our community of practice is supported by a combination of individual and organizational contributions. If your organization would like to contribute money or other resources to aid in our mission to empower teams to tackle the world's toughest problems through Complexity Science, please contact us at [email protected].
Briony Barr (brionybarr.com). Accordion landscape II (detail). Fountain pen on paper. 21 x 117 cm. 2020.
Join the next cohort of our Applied Complexity Community of Practice
(Registration fee is offered on a sliding scale)