[Ipeg-all] Fwd: [inf News] ETH Computer Science Colloquium // Dirk Helbing, ETH

[Schindler Konrad]

Dear colleagues,

in the summer meeting (and probably also the past meeting) it was discussed that we shoul see what the FuturICT people are planning. There is a seminar talk by Helbling next week.

best,
Konrad


Begin forwarded message:

From: Hassheider Helena <helena.hassheider at inf.ethz.ch<mailto:helena.hassheider at inf.ethz.ch>>
Date: October 20, 2011 11:09:14 GMT+02:00
To: Hassheider Helena <helena.hassheider at inf.ethz.ch<mailto:helena.hassheider at inf.ethz.ch>>
Cc: all <all at inf.ethz.ch<mailto:all at inf.ethz.ch>>
Subject: [inf News] ETH Computer Science Colloquium // Dirk Helbing, ETH

ETH Zurich Computer Science Colloquium
___________________
TITLE: “FuturICT - A Knowledge Accelerator to Explore and Manage Our Future in a Strongly Connected World”
Dirk Helbing, ETH Zurich
Monday, 24. October 2011
16:15 - 17:15 in CAB G61

ABSTRACT:
We have built particle accelerators to understand the forces that make up our physical world. But we still don’t understand the principles underlying our strongly connected, techno-socio-economic systems. To fill the knowledge gaps and keep up with the fast pace at which our world is changing, a Knowledge Accelerator must be urgently created. This 21st century challenge will be addressed by the FuturICT Flagship project.
Globalization and technological change have made the world a different place. This has created or intensified a number of serious problems, such as international conflict and world-wide terrorism, global financial and economic crises, political instabilities and revolutions, the quick spreading of diseases, global environmental change, disruptions of international supply chains, organized crime and increased cyber risks. At the same time, the 21st century has the potential to create unprecedented benefits for our economy and society, based on a whole range of new methods and innovations.
Although creating more interconnected systems has contributed to the above problems, future information and communication technologies (ICTs) can also be part of the solution. This requires us to establish a new science of multilevel complex systems, bringing the best knowledge of experts on information and communication systems, complex systems and the social sciences together. The FuturICT flagship project aims to develop the capacity to explore and manage our future, based on a fundamental understanding of the principles that make connected systems work well.

BIOGRAPHY:
Dirk Helbing has been at ETH Zurich since 2007. He is Professor of Sociology, in particular of Modeling and Simulation. Before joining ETH Zurich, he was Managing Director of the Institute for Transport & Economics at Dresden University of Technology, Germany, where he was appointed full professor for Traffic Modeling and Econometrics in 2000. Helbing studied physics and mathematics at the University of Göttingen (D), and completed his doctoral thesis at Stuttgart University (D). For his PhD thesis on modeling social processes by means of game-theoretical approaches, stochastic methods and complex systems theory, he was awarded two research prizes. In 1996, he received a Heisenberg scholarship following the completion of his habilitation on traffic dynamics and optimization. From 1997 on, he spent two years altogether at international research institutions in various countries. In 2008, Professor Helbing was elected as a member of the prestigious German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina). He has organized several international conferences and has edited special issues on material flows in networks and on cooperative dynamics in socio-economic or traffic systems. Professor Helbing has given numerous public talks and published more than 250 papers, including several contributions to high-impact journals like Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). In addition, he heads the Physics of Socio-Economic Systems Division (SOE) of the German Physical Society (DPG), is the vice chairman of the ETH Risk Center, and scientific coordinator of the FuturICT flagship project.
___________________
The Computer Science Colloquium is an opportunity to listen to some of the top international computer scientists on a variety of topics ranging over the hottest areas of the discipline.
The lectures are open to the public and we welcome outside attendance. All presentations are on Mondays from 16:15 - 17:15 in the CAB G61 auditorium. For access information see www.inf.ethz.ch/about/finding/local_map<http://www.inf.ethz.ch/about/finding/local_map>. Find recordings of previous colloquia at ETH's Multimedia Portal www.multimedia.ethz.ch/speakers/d_infk/2011/autumn<http://www.multimedia.ethz.ch/speakers/d_infk/2011/autumn>.
For more information on the program please visit
www.inf.ethz.ch/colloquium<http://www.inf.ethz.ch/colloquium>
___________________
Helena Hassheider
Communications
Department of Computer Science

ETH Zurich
Universitätstrasse 19 (UNG G15), CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland
helena.hassheider at inf.ethz.ch<mailto:Minh.Tran at inf.ethz.ch>
+41 (0)44 632 5277
http://www.inf.ethz.ch<http://www.inf.ethz.ch/>
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--
Prof. Dr. Konrad Schindler
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, ETH Zurich
Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 15, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Tel: +41 44 6333004, Fax: +41 44 6331101, room HIL D42.3