N72956 Systems Theory

The course aims at supporting students in acquiring the knowledge and the skills to recognize the structure of a basic modelling problem of a dynamic system and to identify the most appropriate logic for the implementation of a computational model that simulates the behaviour of that system. Given its pragmatic approach, the course also aims at supporting students in building experimental simulation models and analysing their quality and performances.

The course aims at supporting students in acquiring the knowledge and the skills to recognize the structure of a basic modelling problem of a dynamic system and to identify the most appropriate logic for the implementation of a computational model that simulates the behaviour of that system. Given its pragmatic approach, the course also aims at supporting students in building experimental simulation models and analysing their quality and performances.

"The graduate student of a Master degree in Engineering Management [...] knows adequately the theoretical and scientific aspects of mathematics and other basic sciences and is able to use that knowledge to interpret and describe complex engineering problems or those that require an interdisciplinary approach." (from the official specifications of the Italian academic system)
In implementing this specification, the course aims at:
- providing a critical insight to system thinking, i.e., the interpretation of reality in terms of systems, through the introduction of modelling techniques that exemplify oppositions such as closed-open, static-dynamic, local-global, deterministic-non-deterministic. .. with reference to the fundamental distinction between systems, models, and languages;
- offering an opportunity to apply such modelling techniques, through the use of software for the development of simulation models.

The course systematically alternate lectures in the classroom, in which the problems and general techniques for their solution are introduced, and experiences in the lab, in which these techniques are applied to solving the proposed problems.
For more details, see http://per.liuc.it/luca.mari/st.