Experts on interdisciplinary studies will visit Northwestern’s Evanston Campus this weekend as part of the second annual Conference on Complex Systems.

The two-day discussion starts Friday and will focus on the emerging role of complex systems, or structures made through combining multiple fields of study. The World Wide Web and the U.S. power grid are complex systems, said chemical and biological engineering Prof. Julio Ottino.

The free event, geared toward faculty members, will be held in the James L. Allen Center. Ottino said he expects about 300 people to attend. The Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems will sponsor the conference.

Speakers from universities and centers nationwide will address the interaction of complex systems disciplines, which include engineering and economics as well as management and decision sciences.

“The concepts are really powerful across an array of disciplines that no one had an idea before that were connected,” said Ottino, the institute’s co-director.

Attendees also will be able to discuss and develop ideas about the systems. Ottino said he hopes new concepts and research topics come out of the conference. Statistics Prof. Bruce Spencer, who plans to attend the conference, said the topics relate to his interest in applying statistics to complex systems.

“Statistics gets used in all kinds of things, and part of it is involvement in developing models and using data to estimate the model,” said Spencer, who works with the institute.

A Conference on Complex Systems was held last year, but this year’s gathering comes after the official establishment of the institute in September. The institute works to create cross-disciplinary research.

Ottino said he hopes the interdisciplinary concepts will lead to new courses for students.

Interdisciplinary education and research was the focus of NU’s special emphasis self-study during reaccreditation.

The establishment of the institute, as well as the conference, represents another mechanism for interdisciplinary studies and research on complex systems through NU, said Wally Hopp, a professor of industrial engineering.

“I hope they come out excited that there’s a new set of tools emerging,” said Hopp, who works with the institute.

Chemical and biological engineering Prof. Luis Amaral, who works with the institute, said those who attend the conference will “realize there are points of connection” among several fields within the university.

“This conference is a great resource for the university as a whole of enabling people to find collaborations and be aware of tools to study types of problems (related to complex systems),” Amaral said. “We are really helping to define what the field (of complex systems) is.”

Reach Angela Tablac at [email protected].