Editor’s Letter
Percy Venegas
doi: 10.18278/jpcs.7.2.1
Percy Venegas
doi: 10.18278/jpcs.7.2.1
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Computation has seen many winters in its journey from promise to become an instrumental part of scientific research. Hundreds of years passed from the sketches of Leibniz and his mechanical calculators to the fundamental idea of Turing-universal Computation. Interestingly, computational-based research has always seen theorists and practitioners teaming up—what an unlikely pair Babbage and Ada Lovelace were. Even computational architecture theorists like Von Neumann took escapades into the applications realm: What would it take for an electronic computer to perform numerical weather prediction? Eventually, scientific computing and complexity science converged—Wolfram and his research on Cellular Automata; Santa Fe Institute Alumni as ambassadors of simulation-based approaches across all over the world; and today, many others relying on Computation to help us model, understand, and devise policy solutions to the challenges of our complex world.
This edition of the Journal on Policy and Complex Systems is a testament to the central role that Computation has in the study of complexity today. Each article explores different types of complex systems: socio-technical, physical, even computational. However, the connecting thread is the same: Computation as an enabler of scientific discovery.
Gobet and Venegas model collective cognition and behavior in markets where participants are “internet crowds” and the financial instruments are novel non-fungible assets issued in social computers (blockchains), the computational paradigm used is genetic algorithms; their work is relevant to the mandates of regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Praddaude, Hogrel, Gay, Baumann, and Bécue tackle issues of practical importance in the intersection of two hot topics: digital manufacturing and cybersecurity. Given the aerospace industry’s strategic importance, in alignment with national security interests, this research will appeal both to practitioners in charge of Industry 4.0 initiatives implementation and corporate risk managers overseeing R&D roadmaps.
The complexity of the simulation environment itself becomes a point of concern when dealing with hard computational chemistry problems such as protein folding. With their work, Višňovský, Spišáková, Hozzová, Olha, Trapl, Spiwok, Hejtmánek, and Křenek demonstrate how to tackle the issue of reproducibility of results that affects many high-performance computing (HPC) initiatives. This paper will be a valuable reference to government research agencies and corporations seeking to maximize the return on investment of capital projects that utilize HPC.
The problem of workplace adaptation for individuals with disabilities is largely overlooked in our societies. This fact makes timely the research presented here by Surnin, Sitnikov, Gubinkiy, Dorofeev, Nikiforova, Krivosheev, Zemtsov, and Ivaschenko, where artificial intelligence and industrial-grade augmented reality offer practical rehabilitation alternatives in complex human-machine systems. Policymakers will not fail to notice the impact in labor productivity (and therefore GDP) that such simulation approaches could bring.
Papatheodosiou and Angeli bring forth an issue high on the policy agenda: climate risk adaptation and preparedness. The design of complex technological systems in response to critical human needs is of interest to government officials and insurance companies.
Closing the current issue of the Journal we have a paper that expands previous research by the authors on policy and education, and that encompasses the main themes covered in this edition: modeling of human behavior and risk, assistive technology, and online learning, the role of context in modeling complex systems and reproducing results and outcomes. Cochran and Johnson revisit their original work in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, inviting policymakers to reflect on the lessons learned to prepare for the next global emergency.
We could not conclude this introductory motivation without highlighting the multidisciplinary and cross-boundary nature of complexity and scientific computing research. This edition features the work of prominent academics and practitioners from the U.S., Latin America, and Eastern and Western Europe. In view of the current armed conflict in Eastern Europe, let us wish that the spirit of collaboration between scholars serves as an inspiration to pursue peace among the nations of the world.
Best regards,
Percy Venegas
Editor-in-Chief, Journal on Policy and Complex Systems
This edition of the Journal on Policy and Complex Systems is a testament to the central role that Computation has in the study of complexity today. Each article explores different types of complex systems: socio-technical, physical, even computational. However, the connecting thread is the same: Computation as an enabler of scientific discovery.
Gobet and Venegas model collective cognition and behavior in markets where participants are “internet crowds” and the financial instruments are novel non-fungible assets issued in social computers (blockchains), the computational paradigm used is genetic algorithms; their work is relevant to the mandates of regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Praddaude, Hogrel, Gay, Baumann, and Bécue tackle issues of practical importance in the intersection of two hot topics: digital manufacturing and cybersecurity. Given the aerospace industry’s strategic importance, in alignment with national security interests, this research will appeal both to practitioners in charge of Industry 4.0 initiatives implementation and corporate risk managers overseeing R&D roadmaps.
The complexity of the simulation environment itself becomes a point of concern when dealing with hard computational chemistry problems such as protein folding. With their work, Višňovský, Spišáková, Hozzová, Olha, Trapl, Spiwok, Hejtmánek, and Křenek demonstrate how to tackle the issue of reproducibility of results that affects many high-performance computing (HPC) initiatives. This paper will be a valuable reference to government research agencies and corporations seeking to maximize the return on investment of capital projects that utilize HPC.
The problem of workplace adaptation for individuals with disabilities is largely overlooked in our societies. This fact makes timely the research presented here by Surnin, Sitnikov, Gubinkiy, Dorofeev, Nikiforova, Krivosheev, Zemtsov, and Ivaschenko, where artificial intelligence and industrial-grade augmented reality offer practical rehabilitation alternatives in complex human-machine systems. Policymakers will not fail to notice the impact in labor productivity (and therefore GDP) that such simulation approaches could bring.
Papatheodosiou and Angeli bring forth an issue high on the policy agenda: climate risk adaptation and preparedness. The design of complex technological systems in response to critical human needs is of interest to government officials and insurance companies.
Closing the current issue of the Journal we have a paper that expands previous research by the authors on policy and education, and that encompasses the main themes covered in this edition: modeling of human behavior and risk, assistive technology, and online learning, the role of context in modeling complex systems and reproducing results and outcomes. Cochran and Johnson revisit their original work in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, inviting policymakers to reflect on the lessons learned to prepare for the next global emergency.
We could not conclude this introductory motivation without highlighting the multidisciplinary and cross-boundary nature of complexity and scientific computing research. This edition features the work of prominent academics and practitioners from the U.S., Latin America, and Eastern and Western Europe. In view of the current armed conflict in Eastern Europe, let us wish that the spirit of collaboration between scholars serves as an inspiration to pursue peace among the nations of the world.
Best regards,
Percy Venegas
Editor-in-Chief, Journal on Policy and Complex Systems
