Complex Systems 2015

International Conference on Complex Systems in Business, Administration, Science and Engineering
12 - 14 May, 2015
New Forest, UK

Organised by:
Wessex Institute, UK

The Open University, UK

Overview

The Conference aims to bring together practitioners of a variety of disciplines interested in developing and discussing the new approaches for resolving complex issues that cannot be formulated using conventional, mathematical or software models. Applications in modelling complex issues using multi-agent technology and similar distributed approaches, which have achieved credible results, are welcomed.

The Conference is particularly focused on methods for resolving complex issues that exhibit some of the following attributes:

Connectivity - A system consists of a large number of diverse components, referred to as Agents, which are richly interconnected.

Autonomy - Agents are not centrally controlled; they have a degree of autonomy but their behaviour is always subject to certain laws, rules or norms.

Emergence - Global behaviour of a complex system emerges from the interaction of agents and is therefore unpredictable but not random; it generally follows discernible patterns.

Nonequilibrium - Global behaviour of a complex system is far from equilibrium because frequent occurrences of disruptive events do not allow the system to return to the equilibrium between two such events.

Nonlinearity - Relations between agents are nonlinear, which occasionally causes an insignificant input to be amplified into an extreme event (butterfly effect).

Self-Organisation - A system is capable of selforganizing in response to disruptive events, a feature termed Adaptability. Self-organisation may also be initiated autonomously by the system in response to a perceived need, a feature termed Creativity.

Co-Evolution - A system irreversibly coevolves with its environment.

High level dynamics of such systems, which are usually expressed through the frequent occurrence of unpredictable disruptive events, make conventional optimizers, batch schedulers and resource planning systems unworkable.

Complex Systems occur in an infinite variety of problems, not only in the realm of physical sciences and engineering, but encompassing fields as diverse as the economy, environment, humanities, social and political sciences. Further examples are given in the list of topics which although incomplete gives an idea of the themes to be covered by the meeting.

The conference objective is to bring together researchers, developers and users of complex systems, aiming to form a community directed at solving complex issues in novel ways.

   

Conference Topics:

• Complex ecological systems
• Complexity science and urban developments
• Complex energy systems
• Complex issues in biological and medical sciences
• Extreme events: natural and human made disasters
• Climate change
• Complexity of the internetbased global market
• Complex business processes
• Supply chain complexity
• Transportation complexity
• Logistics complexity
• Closed and open systems
• Attractions and chaotic systems
• Complex adaptive software
• Complexity of big data
• Management of complexity
• Global economy as a complex system
• Complexity in social systems
• Complex political systems
• Administrations as complex systems
• Complexity in engineering
• Complexity and environment
• Complexity and evolution
• Complexity in linguistics, literature and arts

Webpage 


View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/15-conferences/complex-systems-2015/page-2.html

SAFE 2015

6th International Conference on Safety and Security Engineering

6 - 8 May, 2015
Opatija, Croatia

Organised by:
University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy
University of Split, Croatia 
Wessex Institute, UK

Overview

This sixth Conference on Safety and Security Engineering follows the success of the first five meetings held in Rome (2005), Malta (2007), Rome (2009), Antwerp (2011) and Rome (2013). The purpose of the Conference is to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of the most recent academic and industrial developments in the theoretical and practical aspects of Safety and Security Engineering.

Safety and Security Engineering, due to its special nature, is an interdisciplinary area of research and application that brings together in a systematic view, many disciplines of engineering, from the traditional to the most technologically advanced. The conference covers areas such as crisis management, security engineering, natural disasters and emergencies, terrorism, IT security, man-made hazards, risk management, control, protection and mitigation issues, and many others.

The meeting aims to attract papers in all related fields, in addition to those listed under the Conference Topics, as well as case studies describing practical experiences. Due to the multitude and variety of topics included, the list is only indicative of the themes of the expected papers. Authors are encouraged to submit abstracts in all areas of Safety and Security, with particular attention to integrated and interdisciplinary aspects.

The conference is aimed at engineers, scientists, field researchers, managers and other specialists involved in one or more aspects of safety and security.

Conference Topics

• Risk analysis, assessment and management
• System safety engineering
• Incident management
• Information and communication security
• Natural disaster management
• Emergency response
• Critical infrastructure protection
• Public safety and security
• Human factors
• Transportation safety and security
• Modelling and experiments
• Security surveillance systems

Webpage

View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/15-conferences/safe-2015/page-2.html

CMEM 2015

17th International Conference on Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements

5 - 7 May, 2015
Opatija, Croatia

Organised by:
University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy
University of Split, Croatia
Wessex Institute, UK

Overview

CMEM 2015 is the 17th International Conference in this well established series on Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements. These successful meetings provide a unique forum for the review of the latest work on the interaction between computational methods and experimental measurements.

This well known series of conferences started in Washington DC (1981) followed by a meeting on board the Queen Elizabeth II Ocean Liner (1984); Porto Carras, Greece (1986); Capri (1988); Montreal (1991); Siena (1993); Capri (1995); Rhodes (1997); Sorrento (1999); Alicante (2001); Sani Beach, Greece (2003); Malta (2005); Prague (2007); the Algarve (2009), the New Forest, UK (2011) and A Coruña, Spain (2013).

The principal intention of the conference has always been to provide to the international technical and scientific community, an opportunity to discuss the interaction between experimental measurements and computational methods with all associated topics. Foremost consideration and importance are devoted to their reciprocal and advantageous integration.

The continuous improvement in computer efficiency, coupled with their diminishing costs and the rapid development of numerical procedures have generated an ever-increasing expansion of computational simulations that permeate all fields of science and technology. As these procedures continue to grow in magnitude and complexity, it is essential to be certain of their reliability, ie to validate their results. This can be achieved by performing dedicated and accurate experiments, which have undergone a constant and enormous development. At the same time, current experimental techniques have become more complex and sophisticated so that they require the exploitation of computers, both for running experiments as well as acquiring and processing the resulting data.

Conference Topics

• Computational and experimental methods
• Fluid flow
• Structural and stress analysis
• Materials characterisation
• Heat transfer and thermal processes
• Advances in computational methods
• Automotive applications
• Applications in industry
• Process simulations
• Environmental modelling and applications
• Computer modelling
• Validation of computer modelling
• Computation in measurements
• Data processing of experiments
• Virtual testing and verification
• Simulation and forecasting
• Measurements in engineering

Webpage

View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/15-conferences/cmem-2015/page-2.html

Materials Characterisation 2015

7th International Conference on Computational Methods and Experiments in Materials Characterisation

22 - 24 April, 2015
València, Spain

Organised by:
Wessex Institute, UK

Overview

Following the success of the six previous meetings in this series (Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2003; Portland, Maine, in 2005; Bologna, Italy, in 2007; New Forest Campus of the Wessex Institute in 2009; Kos, Greece, in 2011 and Siena, Italy, in 2013), it has been decided to reconvene the International Conference of Computational Methods and Experiments in Materials Characterisation.

The aim of the conference is to facilitate interactions within the research community and discuss the latest developments in this rapidly advancing field. The meeting responds to the demand for high quality products for both industry and consumers, which has led to rapid developments in materials science and engineering. This requires the characterisation of the physical and chemical properties of the materials. Consideration of different experimental techniques as well as computer simulation methods is essential to achieve a proper analysis. A very wide range of materials, starting with metals through polymers and semiconductors to composites, necessitates a whole spectrum of material characterisation experimental techniques and numerical methods.

All papers to be published in the conference volume as well as those from previous meetings are permanently archived at http://library.witpress.com where they are available to the international community.

Conference Topics

• Cementitious materials
• Computational models and experiments
• Corrosion problems
• Advances in composites
• Micro and macro materials characterisation
• Fracture and fatigue problems
• Mechanical characterisation and testing
• Recycled materials
• Structural health monitoring
• Energy materials

Webpage

View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/15-conferences/materials-characterisation-2015/page-2.html

Contact and Surface 2015

12th International Conference on Computational Methods and Experiments in Surface and Contact Mechanics including Tribology

21 - 23 April, 2015

València, Spain

Organised by:
University of Groningen,  The Netherlands
University of Bournemouth, UK
Wessex Institute, UK 

Overview

The importance of contact and surface effects in modern engineering and their combined effects has led the organisers to reconvene this 12th International Conference, which covers Computational Methods and Experiments in Surface and Contact Mechanics including Tribology.

The series began in Southampton UK (1993); continued in Ferrara and Milan (1995); Oxford, UK and Madrid (1997); Stuttgart and Assissi (1999); Seville (2001); Crete (2003); Bologna (2005); New Forest (2007); the Algarve (2009); Malta (2011) and Siena (2013).

The papers presented in these conferences are permanently archived in the eLibrary of the Wessex Institute (http://library.witpress.com), where they are easily accessible to the international scientific community. Central themes of the conference are surfaces, interfaces and thin films. In general, structural components fail by wear, corrosion and fatigue, that is to say affected and initiated by the surface conditions. Consequently, an appropriate approach is to modify the surface layer of a base material or coat it, so as to provide an enhanced performance. However, in many cases it is the combined effect of wear and corrosion that is damaging and as a result this contributes to an even larger complexity. The complexity of the tribological properties of materials and the economic aspects of friction and wear justify an increasing research effort.

The surface treatment chosen should be suitably related to the problem to be solved. The necessary thickness of the coating depends largely on the applied loading and environmental conditions. This conference will address novel protective layers for advances in sliding wear and low friction.

The range of topics to be discussed regarding Tribology embraces all aspects of concern including reliability, energy applications, advanced materials and corrosion. Tribology problems are essentially interdisciplinary. Engineers and scientists working in this field must be familiar with a wide range of issues, including surface mechanics, material characterization, chemical and biological processes, computer simulation, measurements and many others.

The aim of the conference is to encourage international cooperation amongst scientists and engineers and to exchange new ideas. It deals with fundamental and applied concepts in the interdisciplinary fields of surface and contact engineering, including tribology, in particular focusing on the interplay between applied physics, materials science and computational methods.

Conference Topics
 

• Surface modification
• Experimental and measurement tests
• Computer simulation
• Surface problems in contact mechanics
• Thick and thin coatings
• Fatigue and fracture mechanics
• Computer methods and components
• Biomedical applications
• Residual stress problems
• Tribomechanics
• Lubrication studies
• Test methods for lubricants
• Wear mechanics
• Tribology in biomechanics
• Case studies

Webpage

View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/15-conferences/contact-and-surface-2015.html

Marine Technology 2015

International Conference on Marine Technology
21 - 23 October, 2015
Novorossiysk, Russia

Organised by:
Wessex Institute, UK

Admiral Ushakov Maritime State University, Russia

Overview

The International Conference on Marine Technology to be held in Novorossiysk organised by the Admiral Ushakov Maritime State University and the Wessex Institute, UK aims to discuss new developments in traditional and advanced marine techniques in a variety of topics.

The substantial growth of maritime shipping and cruise ships, together with the rapid advances in naval engineering for military as well as civilian uses has resulted in rapid changes in many fields. They include management, operation, design and manufacture of ship and maritime works. Added to this are the substantial advances in the field of offshore hydrocarbon exploitation, and shipping with the need to address the associated environmental risk.

The conference will address both advances in traditional as well as improvement in marine engineering techniques, including modern areas of research and development on a variety of topics listed below, as well as others relevant to the objectives of the meeting.

Conference Topics

• Navigation and ship operations
• Shipbuilding and design
• Materials and fabrication in shipbuilding
• Ship propulsion, equipment and automation
• Management aspects
• Reliability and safety in marine technology
• Deep sea systems and vehicles
• Offshore hydrocarbons exploration and exploitation
• Monitoring and response
• Environmental issues
• Emergency response
• Education, training and knowledge dissemination
• Ship and port operations
• Multimode transport
• Maintenance
• Material degradation and corrosion
• Risk analysis
• Information systems
• Hydrodynamic aspects
• Port management
• Marine engineering works

 

Webpage

View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/15-conferences/marine-technology-2015.html

Multiphase Flow 2015

8th International Conference on Computational and Experimental Methods in Multiphase and Complex Flow

20 - 22 April, 2015
 
València, Spain

Organised by:
Wessex Institute, UK
University of New Mexico, USA

Overview

The success of the series of International Conferences on Multiphase Flow, Orlando, Florida (2001); Santa Fe, New Mexico (2003), Portland, Maine (2005), Bologna, (2007), New Forest, UK (2009), Koss, Greece (2011) and A Coruna, Spain (2013) has led to reconvening the meeting in 2015.

The overall focus of this conference series is the combination of experimental and computational techniques to gain a better understanding of all classes of multiphase and complex flow. The goal of the meeting is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and experiences directly and interactively, thereby promoting the development of knowledge in this increasingly important topic.

Fluid dynamics processes in nature are essentially multi-phased, i.e. involving more than one phase of a component such as liquid, gas or plasma. The range of related problems of interest is vast: astrophysics, biology, geophysics, atmospheric process and many others including a whole variety of engineering applications.

Thus it is understandable that multiphase structures generate a great deal of interest. This is the motivation for experimental, analytical and numerical studies in this area. While progress is continuing in all three categories, work on numerical solutions has advanced rapidly, owing to the continuing improvements in computer power and the software tools available to researchers. Progress in numerical methods has not only allowed for the solution of many practical problems, but also helped to advance our understanding of the physics involved. Many unresolved issues are inherent in the very definition of multiphase flow, where it is necessary to consider coupled process in multiple scales, not necessarily all of them characterised by the same physics. Moreover, in the study of some of them, the approximations valid for large scale problems may no longer be physically appropriate.

Close interaction between numerical modellers and other researchers is required to resolve many outstanding issues in multiphase flow. Theory and experiments are essential for validation and verification of numerical methods, with the latter providing new insights into the interpretation of experimental results and suggesting new directions of theoretical research.

This series of conferences on Multiphase Flow, organised by the Wessex Institute since 2001 aims to further such initiatives and to develop knowledge transfer mechanisms, in particular between academics and industry professionals. The papers presented at previous meetings are stored in digital form at http://library.witpress.com where they are permanently available to the international community

Conference Topics

• Multiphase flow simulation
• Bubble and drop dynamics
• Interface behaviour
• Experimental measurements
• Energy applications
• Compressible flows
• Flow in porous media
• Turbulent flow
• Image processing
• Heat transfer
• Atomization
• Hydromagnetics
• Plasma
• Fluidised beds
• Cavitation

Webpage

View the conference website, which has full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/15-conferences/multiphase-flow-2015.html