- Complexity Explorer /
- 27 Nov 2018
- Complex Systems
We are writing with three exciting bits of news...
New look and feel for Complexity Explorer
Yesterday we launched a new user interface for ComplexityExplorer.org. All your favorite content is still there, but the graphical design has been updated. We’ve also streamlined navigation so that it’s easier for you to find your way around the site.
Year-end Fund Drive
This giving Tuesday we hope you will support our year-end CE fund drive. Although almost all of our courses are free to take, they are not free to produce and maintain. The future of our free online courses — and the Complexity Explorer site as a whole — depends on donations from participants. If you are able, please consider making a donation to Complexity Explorer. Your gift is fully tax deductible in the US. One hundred percent of your donation will support our online education programs.
To help us kickstart this year's annual fund drive, we have received a generous challenge grant of $3,000 from Professor Melanie Mitchell, founder of the Complexity Explorer project. We would love to meet her challenge today by raising $3,000 from Complexity Explorer users. This will secure her donation and get us almost halfway to our fundraising goal of $15,000 by December 31st. Please take a moment today to support our campaign or give to our annual drive anytime between now and December 31st. We need your help to continue this valuable programming.
Your donations last year helped us expand our 2018 Complexity Explorer offerings. We released two new tutorials — Fundamentals of Machine Learning and Fundamentals of Netlogo — and produced nine Complexicon videos, each providing a lively introduction to a key term in complexity science. Your donations also made it possible to run our successful Spring 2018 Complexity Challenge, create a new browse function, and revamp the Complexity Explorer interface. We couldn’t have done all this without your donations.
We have some big plans for 2019. With your help meeting our $15,000 year-end goal, Complexity Explorer will:
- Launch the brand new Origins of Life course. Chris Kempes and Sarah Maurer will explore how biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science come together to shed light on how life began. This course will launch in June 2019.
- Create interactive apps to explore Complex Systems concepts visually.
- Build a library of NetLogoWeb Models so that users can learn NetLogo right on Complexity Explorer.
- Continue to offer the Complexity Challenge in 2019 to give students a chance to put their complex systems expertise to use.
- Grow our community by developing new free content and providing as many scholarships as needed for our fee-based courses.
Every donation from November 27th through December 31st gives you a chance to win some of our Complexity Explorer gear.
Donate over $101 - enter to win a Complexity Explorer t-shirt and notebook
Donate $50 to $100 - enter to win a Complexity Explorer t-shirt
Donate $25-50 - enter to win a Complexity Explorer notebook
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Figure 1. Complexity Explorer Users Global Distribution October 2018
The Complexity Explorer community has grown to 42,000 users, with 84% of the worlds countries represented. We also have 390 subtitle volunteers who translate complex systems science into 61 languages. Thank you all for making the complexity science community a global one.
New Complexity Explorer Staffing
We are pleased to announce that Linden Schneider is now handling all day-to-day work for the Complexity Explorer project. Linden is a farmer and scientist with a passion for soils, chemistry, plants, food, languages, and water. She recently earned her Masters degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Biogeochemistry. Linden has been working in the Santa Fe Institute’s education office for the past year, and we are delighted that she has stepped into this leadership role.
