The Institute for Innovative Study (IIS) is presently preparing a list of special focal-research topics
that will influence its formative years of activity in conjunction with sponsor and donor support from
both private and public sources. In addition there are a few established programs of research that
have been already initiated and underway for nearly a decade,and for which funding and sporsorship applications
have been initiated.
The central focus within the Institute is upon LEAPS -
the Laboratory for Emergent
and Adaptive Processes and Systems,
and the material in the LEAPS directory provides current, up-to-date information on the efforts underway.
Within LEAPS, there is currently one major and central project, known as PBC-EGIA-Genesis.
This concerns research in the domain of the life sciences, concentrating upon complexity and coherence models of cell biology and
topological interactions for intracellular signaling and communications pertinent to gene activation and deactivation. The primary
research plan is being directed at questions of Epigenetic and Genetic Impact and Adaptation in Response to
Acute and Sustained Environmental Trauma. This work is now progressing from theory and modeling to planned experimental studies including
field work in two particular physical sites, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (Zona) and the Fukushima Exclusion Zone.
Simultaneously, there is major work underway with educational-focus activities, particularly those aiming at serving and developing
participation by students and mentors teaming with challenged and disadvantaged youth.
A major thrust is underway to produce the initial components of the IDEAS project (see below) with a focus upon
ethics and morals in business and capital enterprise.
Another seminal activity area is in conjunction with CIBI for
cultivating lifelong STEM (science-tech-engineering-maths) learning and creativity through innovative projects such as robots
and game-like human-machine interfaces for use by children and senior citizens in the home. A unique quality to these projects
is that they will intentionally include, as project participants, members of the community including not only youth and senior
citizens but persons with a variety of experiential, behavioral and physical challenges. IIS is working with organizations and
agencies in Virginia and New York that are focused upon juvenile and adult social services, health, public safety and justice in
order to accomplish, in no simpler terms, very positive results for people who have been forgotten, neglected or who have
"fallen between the cracks."
Thus, the Institute is not only about abstract or speculative theory but very much about real people, real problems, and
feasible solutions.
As for the longer-term, there are several projects and programs, many suggested or initiated already by students in
high schools and colleges. The exact nature of their development will be shaped by the teamwork of many minds and bodies
working together, not only within the Institute per se but within collaborative and partnering organizations.
These suggested programs constitute long-term Institute-wide multidisciplinary, multi-person Projects that will involve
partners from academia, private industry, and the public sector as well as Institute Faculty. Components of these projects
have been underway by cooperating individuals and groups - in some cases for several years. Presently there are graduate-level
students, postdocs, and other professionals engaged in different facets of this work. Our goal is to bring things together
under one roof, so to speak, and to be more productive, efficient, and coherent through modest organization.
The core Institute Projects to date include:
Arts, Education and Society Focus
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Focus
Special focal-research areas of interest (in terms of academic disciplines) for project development in principally
theoretical topics include:
- Biologically-based predictive models for social behavior
- Chaos, Complexity theory and Emergent systems
- Computational physics
- Meme models and Psychohistorical studies
- Morse and Ramsey theory
- Noncommutative mathematics
- Nonlinear dynamic systems
- Pattern perception and differentiation
- Quantum logics, quantum gravity, quantum relativity and cosmology
- Social network forecasting and prediction
- Solitons and Catastrophe phenomena
- Topology and Differential Geometry
