UDSU / Urban Sciences

UDSU, in partnership with ICSS Institute of Complex System at Strathclyde, organizes the Evolution of Complex Transportation Networks (ECTN) Workshop to be held at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, on 29-30 August 2011.

The list of invited speaker includes:

  • Dr. Marc Barthélemy Institute of Theoretical Physics, CEA, Saclay, France.
  • Prof. Andy Adamatzky and Jeff Jones International Group for Unconventional Computing, University of West England, UK.
  • Prof. Michael Batty CASA Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College of London, UK.
  • Prof. Vito Latora Complex Systems Laboratory, University of Catania , Catania, Italy.
  • Prof. David Levinson NEXUS Economics and Urban Systems Research Group,Department of Civil Engineering and Networks, University of Minnesota,USA.
  • Prof. Luciano Da Fontoura Costa Institute of Physics Sao Carlos, San Paolo University, Sao Paolo, Brazil.
  • Prof. Ernesto Estrada ICCS, Institute of Complex Systems at Strathclyde and Department of Mathematics and Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
  • Dr. Marc Durand Laboratoire Matiere Systemes Complexes, University Paris Diderot, Paris, France.

ECTN Workshop will address problems associated with the evolution of complex transportation systems. While the main focus of the workshop is on urban systems, contributions from other fields, such as physics and biology are also extremely welcome, because of the intrinsically interdisciplinary nature of the questions we want to be addressed! It is now clear that describing and understanding the growth of transportation systems is one of big scientific challenges for the next years and this workshop will contribute to define the common advances and future challenges across a multidisciplinary area of knowledge.

Transportation networks play a fundamental role for the organization of natural, technological and cultural systems. The form and the properties of a number of systems are intrinsically linked with their underlying transportation networks: the growth of cities is shaped by their streets pretty much in the same way as the growth of organisms depends on the existence of a well developed circulatory or transportation system.