CDS 241 Course details (Spring 2018)

CDS 270 Course Details

There are videos, slides, and reading in a dropbox folder.

Course videos and slides are in subfolder CDS270.

I'm adding material various subfolders of CDS270, labeled to suggest their content. I'll continue to add subfolders with mixes of videos, slides, and reading. I'll try to make videos of the highest priority material.

Current topics are:

1.Overview These give a quick overview of the questions motivating this class, primarily using the human nervous system, but mentioning bacteria and the Internet. These will also be the first videos to watch for the class. There is also a folder with some related papers.

2.NeuroIntroTheory A quick introduction to the theory that connects speed/accuracy tradeoffs in spiking neurons with speed/accuracy tradeoffs at the system level.

3.BalanceWaterbed Summary of stick balancing tradeoffs including unstable poles and zeros. The "waterbed" effect and oscillations. Chaotic dynamics and sensitivity to initial conditions.

3.x1.ExtrasVision has extra slides on vision and visual illusions.

3.x2.TuringArchMiscDetails has more extra old slides on architecture details, with an emphasis on connecting with Turing's work.

4.MedPhysio&HeartRateVar Videos, slides, and a PNAS paper on explaining cryptic patterns in heart rate variability using robust performance tradeoffs and optimal control theory.

5.BioGlycoOscillate Videos, slides, and a Science paper on explaining the mechanism underlying glycolytic oscillations at the cellular level. Also involves robust efficiency, robust control theory, and the waterbed effect. Lots of extra old slides on architecture in biology, emphasizing bacteria. New and more accessible theory explaining the ubiquity of cryptic oscillations in controlled systems.

6.DynamicsNorms A minimal introduction to dynamics, input-output responses, (finite) impulse response, and norms on signals and systems.

7.Turbulence Robust control applied to study the origin and nature of turbulence in the high shear flows that dominate much of technology and nature. Particular focus on large coherent structures, their connection with blunting of the turbulent profile, and the resulting impact on drag. Emphasizes collaborations with Dennice Gayme and Beverley McKeon.

I'll continue to add to these, but at any time there will be a mix of materials, and not very well organized.

You might want to download the videos, as dropbox will run them in preview mode, which limits their length.

Initial schedule

Tu Apr 4 Discussion about 1.Overview and 2.NeuroIntroTheory. Th Apr 6 Demos and questions on driving game, balancing, and theory questions and clarifications

Tu Apr 11 Recap above and start discussion about 3.Balance and 3.x1.ExtrasVision. Th Apr 13 Finish discussion of 3.Balance, 3.x1.ExtrasVision, 3.x2.TuringArchMiscDetails, and waterbed effect.

Tu Apr 18 Bridging discussion to turbulence involving minimal dynamics and norms. Time permitting, brief intro to basic of chimps, bonobos, and baboons. Th Apr 20 Special guest lecture on turbulence by Dennice Gayme, CDS alum and now assistant professor and Carol Croft Linde Faculty Scholar at Hopkins. Dennice will also give the GALCIT colloquium at 3pm on Friday on wind farms.

If you are interested in medicine and/or biology see: 4.MedPhysio&HeartRateVar and 5.BioGlycoOscillate. If there is enough interest we'll have a week later focused on these.

Recommended lite reading (listening)

These are popular books for a general audience available in audio format.

Nick Lane, The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life Audible

Nick Lane, Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution Audible

Robert M. Sapolsky, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst Audible

Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, Sangeet Paul Choudary, Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy - and How to Make Them Work for You Audible

Ed Yong, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life Audible

Michael Lewis, The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds Audible

Kathleen McAuliffe, This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society Audible

Social architecture

Noam Chomsky, Requiem for the American Dream: The Principles of Concentrated Wealth and Power Audible

Robert J. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War Audible

Elizabeth Warren, This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America's Middle Class Audible

Miscellaneous articles

Article on animal social justice

Article on Trump as chimp

What I'm hoping to listen to next

Peter Brannen, The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions Audible