George Mason University

C4I SPECIAL SEMINAR
Dr. Anne-Marie Grisogono presents
“Applying Insights from Complex Adaptive Systems Science to Dealing with Adaptive and Complex Threats”

ABSTRACTComplex problems do not lend themselves to obvious solutions, by definition. It is necessary therefore to pay attention to how approaches and solutions are going to be developed, or in other words, to a strategy for dealing with complexity. The outcome or product of such a strategy is also a strategy, but a specific one – the concept of how the actual situation in question will be handled. These and many other difficulties stemming from complexity call for a more thorough appraisal of design as a strategy for dealing with complexity. It will be argued that the most critical design task for such situations is to design the meta-decision and adaptation architecture of the system or strategy, and a framework for doing this will be presented and discussed.

BIODr. Anne-Marie Grisogono spent the first part of her career as a regular physicist, with a PhD in Mathematical Physics and over a decade working in atomic, molecular and optical physics at various universities. She spent the next twenty years working for Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation heading up the development of a Synthetic Environment Research Facility, and at various times leading the areas of Systems science and experimentation, Simulation, and most recently, Human Sciences. In 2003 she initiated a blue sky research program into complexity science for defense applications which gained rapid traction with the Australian Army, who promptly operationalized and implemented many of the research outcomes generated by the program. The three initial research thrusts in the program – deeper conceptual understanding of the processes that generate, modify and maintain structure in complex systems, better ways of exploring, representing and understanding causal and influence networks (or networked causality), and better methodologies, tools and techniques for dealing with complex defense problems – led to a fourth which has become a prime focus for defense applications: researching how people make decisions in complex situations and how their effectiveness can be improved. Results of experimental trials have demonstrated that better complex decision-making can be developed, but have also raised a number of research questions. Other application areas include organizational design, adaptive organizations, design and engineering of complex systems, designing adaptive operations to deal with complex situations, and fostering more effective cooperation between diverse actors in complex situations.


Date/Time
10/03/2014
11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Location
C4I Center ENGR 4705