Systems Thinking

Course title: Systems Thinking

Code: 3ФЕИТ01З023

Number of credits (ECTS): 6

Weekly number of classes: 2+2+1+0

Prerequisite for enrollment of the subject: None

Course Goals (acquired competencies): Upon completion of the course, the student will acquire knowledge for presenting, modeling and analyzing the behavior of systems of a different nature, and not just technical. For this purpose, the analysis will focus on considering the system as a whole in order to obtain comprehensive (holistic) view of its behavior. The student will acquire knowledge for the behavior of the system resulting from its structure (complexity), that is, with knowledge of what is meant by the notion of the system, its behavior, and its structure.

Total available number of classes: 180

Course Syllabus: Concept of a system; Decomposition of a system to its constituents; Definition of input and output variables; The significance of the natural feedback; Simple systems whose behavior stems from their structure; Graphical representation of systems and the way they are coupled; Categories of system specific states; Block diagrams and signal flow graphs; Why systems work so well (resilience, self-organization, and hierarchy); Information, signal and control; Mathematical models and graphical representation of dynamical systems; State-space representation of a system; Equivalent models; Eigen structure of the system matrix; Undesirable behavior in systems that originate from their structure and ways to avoid them; Controllability and observability of systems; Leverage points - places to intervene in a system; Basics of Lyapunov stability.

Literature: