Complex Adaptive Systems & Computational Intelligence

Luis Rocha's lab, the Complex Adaptive Systems and Computational Intelligence (CASCI) research group at Binghamton University and the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia, works on complex systems and network science. We are particularly interested in the informational properties of natural and artificial systems which enable them to adapt, learn, and evolve. This means both understanding how information is fundamental for controlling the behavior and evolutionary capabilities of complex systems, as well as abstracting principles from nature to produce adaptive intelligent systems. This theoretical and applied research agenda focuses on tackling multi-level complexity involved in human health, and is organized in three main threads: complex networks & systems, computational and systems biology, and computational intelligence. Our publications are available online.

See our current roster and information on how to join our group. Luis Rocha is also co-director with Johan Bollen of the Consortium for Social and Biomedical Complexity (CSBC) between Indiana University and Binghamton University (SUNY). Our group is seriously interconnected with other research groups and networks such as the Center for Collective Dynamics of Complex Systems (CoCo) and the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência.

Academics and Research

We are always looking for postdocs and students at any level to collaborate with us. Professor Rocha currently works with students from various programs, chiefly the graduate program in Systems Science at Binghamton University (SUNY), but also the NSF-NRT Interdisciplinary Program in Complex Networks & Systems he created, the Programme in Integrative Biology and Biomedicine at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia, and others.

All available postdoctoral positions are now filled. But we will soon (early 2023) be accepting applications for one or more full-time non-tenure track postdoctoral fellows to conduct interdisciplinary research in Complex Networks and Systems applied to various social, ecological, biological, medicine and health problems in our lab at the Systems Science and Industrial Engineering Department at Binghamton University (State University of New York) or the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia.

Current lab members see graduate forms needed during Systems Science program. There is also a dissertation proposal set of guidelines, and dissertation and thesis examples.

Mailing

You are welcome to join our Google Group and mailing list CASCI@binghamton.edu by requesting to join.

Congratulations to CASCI member Felipe Xavier Costa for successfully defending his dissertation entitled "Leveraging Redundancy As A Link Between Spreading Dynamics On And Of Networks in August 2024 in the Physics Department of the University at Albany (SUNY). Felipe was supervised by Luis Rocha. Dr. Costa’s research investigates how redundancy in heterogeneous, multivariate dynamical systems can connect how dynamics affect network topology and which pathways are necessary for spreading phenomena on networks and complex nonlinear dynamics of automata networks (with node dynamics). Felipe is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia

Congratulations to CASCI member Miguel Bernardo Pereira for successfully defending his M.S. Thesis entitled "Distance Backbones of Weighted Graphs" in December 2023. Bernardo was co-supervised by Luis Rocha and Pedro Martins Rodrigues. Mr. Pereira's research deals with the topic of sparsification of weighted graphs using distance backbones of a weighted graph. He examined how these backbones preserve characteristics of epidemiological simulations carried out onsocial networks using Susceptible-Infected and Susceptible-Infected-Recovered models. Bernardo is currently a research assistant at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia .

We are happy to work on research projects with undergraduate students, especially in summer projects. In 2022 we worked with outstanding students Kian Bigovic Villi (University of Zagreb, Croatia), Isabel Campgnolo (Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal), and João Adaixo (Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal.) See a summary of their amazing summer projects.