Sunday, 3rd October, 2010, 9.30h - 10.30h

What is a model, and why not? (workshop on multiscale simulations - 2nd Barcelona School on Biomedical Informatics)

Indiscriminate use of terminology can be counter-productive for formation of concepts and their communication. Questions such as “What is a model?” or “What is a system?” will raise a multitude of answers, when posed to different people. This lecture aims to propose some common ground and a few basic definitions, from which answers to follow-on questions, such as “What is the best model of … [insert system of your choice]?” or “How soon will we have a complete model of …?” will emerge naturally. It will go on to discuss the multi-scale nature of modelling in bio(-medical) research, illustrate scenarios using the example of research into cardiac electro-mechanical interactions, and end with a praise of failure as the key driver of intellectual insight.

Speaker: Peter Kohl (University of Oxford)

Room PRBB Auditorium