ISKO UK was delighted to support Marcela Alves, a doctoral candidate in Computer Science at the University of Oxford, to attend the 2025 Complexity Science Hub Winter School in Vienna, Austria.
Marcela studies machine learning network architectures that can better represent phenomena such as the economy. The next step in Marcela's research will be applying Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) to investigate how agents can be powered by cognitively plausible knowledge structures (e.g., semantic memory models) to simulate learning or problem-solving in populations, which is of relevance to the KO community.
Marcela's report on her time at the Complexity Science Winter School is below.
Report on Attendance at the Complexity Science Hub Winter School 2025
From February 23rd to 28th, I attended the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) Winter School 2025 in Vienna. This event brought together graduate students from diverse disciplines to explore the role of complexity science in understanding dynamic systems. It gave me a unique opportunity to interact with the CSH experts—who are developing state-of-the-art methods—and explore new methodologies relevant to Knowledge Organization (KO).
The Winter School was structured to foster both theoretical and practical engagement. Dr Elma Hot Dervic's lecture on networks and community detection was particularly relevant to KO principles, as network analysis plays a crucial role in knowledge representation, classification, and the study of evolving relationships within information systems. Understanding how communities form and shift within complex networks can inform the development of ontologies and taxonomies that dynamically adapt to real-world changes. I was particularly interested in the lecture led by Dr Jan Korbel on statistical physics for social science. His lecture provided a framework for applying mathematical models to understand social dynamics, directly impacting bibliographic information systems and metadata management. Dr Vito Servedio expanded on these themes, offering perspectives on how complexity science can enhance our understanding of social networks and labour market transitions—an area of particular interest for my collaboration during the Winter School.
One of the most enriching aspects of the programme was the group project. These "mini-projects" allowed participants to discuss how to apply theoretical concepts to real-world problems. I partnered with Dr Laura Fürsich from the University of Chicago to investigate how changes in flow structures within graphs can provide insights into labour market shifts, an idea built upon discussions from Dr Elma Hot Dervic's lecture. The final day of the Winter School was dedicated to project presentations. Dr Fürsich and I pitched a paper proposal on exploring how job transitions could be modelled using knowledge graphs to detect emerging trends in employment sectors. This aligns with KO principles, as knowledge graphs - represented by complex networks or graphs - serve as powerful tools for organising and interpreting dynamic information landscapes. We believe that integrating such analytical methods into existing KO frameworks—such as those used in governmental labour statistics and business process modelling—could enhance predictive insights and policy-making. Beyond the formal sessions, the Winter School also had group lunches and dinners, providing ample opportunities for networking and informal discussions.
My participation in the Complexity Science Hub Winter School was very beneficial. The interdisciplinary nature of the Winter School reinforced the importance of KO techniques in making sense of complex datasets and the relevance of classification systems, ontologies, and knowledge graphs in a wide range of domains. I would like to express my gratitude to the International Society for Knowledge Organization UK (ISKO UK) for their support, which made my participation possible through its grants for students and new graduates. The insights gained during this event will contribute to my future research, consequently resulting in my contribution to the KO community and beyond.
