Northwestern Events Calendar

Jan
22
2018

Hyejin Youn: Scaling in Physics, Biology, Cities and Beyond

When: Monday, January 22, 2018
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CT

Where: Technological Institute, M416, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it

Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students

Contact: Beth Siculan   (847) 491-3345

Group: McCormick-Colloquia Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics

Category: Lectures & Meetings

Description:

Title: Scaling in Physics, Biology, Cities and Beyond

Speaker: Hyejin Youn, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern

Abstract:Scaling theory in general, and its application in physics, biology and social science will be summarized, followed by a more detailed discussion of urban scaling and its relation to the universality and self-similarity lurking in the urban systems. The universality and self-similarity of various urban phenomena seem both trivial and non-trivial. On one hand, the dynamics of cities are so complex that it seems impossible to explain them in a simple way. Urban characteristics, geographic factors and historical paths are so entangled that even a well-designed plan often results in unintended consequences. This high level of complexity contradicts the universality and self-similarity that we observe in almost every property of cities (population distribution, crime rate, productivity and even economic diversity) because they imply the underlying dynamics are reducible to a simple form. On the other hand, universality is a natural, and even trivial, consequence derived from a common set of functionalities of cities. People share reasons to move to cities: more interaction, greater opportunity, higher productivity and better infrastructure. These basic dynamics of urbanization are manifested as a strong signal of universality and self-similarity under a single scaling law.

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