Former Vice President of Education at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), Ginger Richardson, and Portland State University Professor, Melanie Mitchell began thinking about creating an online course back in 2010. SFI's summer schools were always oversubscribed, propelling them to create a MOOC platform and complexity themed MOOCs that could help reach those students craving an understanding of complex systems who were not able to travel to the Santa Fe Institute.
In 2011 the Complexity Explorer project was officially launched by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to the Santa Fe Institute. In 2012 the platform was developed and in early 2013 the first MOOC, Introduction to Complexity with Melanie Mitchell, was launched with over 7000 enrolled students.
The Santa Fe Institute is a private, not-for-profit, independent research and education center, founded in 1984, where leading scientists endeavor to understand and unify the underlying, shared patterns in complex physical, biological, social, cultural, technological, and even possible astrobiological worlds
Researchers come to the Santa Fe Institute from universities, government agencies, research institutes, and private industry to collaborate across disciplines, merging ideas and principles of many fields -- from physics, mathematics, and biology to the social sciences and humanities -- in pursuit of creative insights that improve our world.
The Institute's scientific and educational missions are supported by philanthropic individuals and foundations, forward-thinking partner companies, and government science agencies.
TEAM
Project Leaders:
Linden Schneider (Program Coordinator, Online Education, Santa Fe Institute)
Dave Feldman (Interim Vice President for Education, Santa Fe Institute)
Course Instructors (to date):
Melanie Mitchell, Portland State University and Santa Fe Institute
David Feldman, College of the Atlantic
Liz Bradley, University of Colorado, Boulder and Santa Fe Institute
Bill Rand, North Carolina State University
John Miller, Carnegie Mellon University and Santa Fe Institute
Hector Zenil, Karolinska University
Narsis Kiani, Karolinska University
Tutorial Instructors (to date):
David Feldman, College of the Atlantic
Liz Bradley, University of Colorado, Boulder and Santa Fe Institute
Simon DeDeo, Carnegie Mellon University and Santa Fe Institute
Sid Redner, Santa Fe Institute
Anthony D. Rhodes, Portland State University
Seth Lloyd, Massachussets Institute of Technology
Justin Grana, Santa Fe Institute
Artemy Kolchinsky, Santa Fe Institute
Brendan Tracey, Santa Fe Institute
Bill Rand, North Carolina State University
Website Design and Development:
Bot & Rose Design, Portland, OR
FUNDING
Creation of Complexity Explorer was funded by the John Templeton Foundation until 2017. New content, web development, and hosting are funded by user contributions and through a partnership with Arizona State University.
