News

Sydney University C3 Symposium

In January 2026, BQI was proud to sponsor The University of Sydney’s Centre for Complex Systems to deliver their biannual Complexity, Criticality and Computation (C3) symposium.

The symposium brings together leading international scholars at world-class university campuses across Australia to present the latest complex systems research, exchange ideas and further the field through collaboration.

This year, the symposium took place at the Heron Island Research Station, managed by the University of Queensland, and centred on the Great Filter theory, which suggests an improbable barrier exists in the evolution of life preventing most life forms from becoming detectible in our universe. Throughout the week, participants presented a series of talks engaging the themes of The Great Filter Hypothesis & “hard steps”;
Self-organisation & evolutionary transitions; and Population dynamics & Limits of cognition. Presenters included the centres director, Prof. Mikhail Prokopenko (USyd); Prof. Zdenka Kuncic (USyd); Dr. Stefan Bornholdt (Bremen University); Prof. Dean Rickles (USyd); Prof. Paul Davies (ASU); and BQl’s Director Darren Dougan.

The Centre for Complex Systems explores complex natural and artificial systems to help develop solutions that can be applied to a wide range of industries including information and communication technologies, financial services, health, energy and civil and transport infrastructure. In addition to their biennial symposium, they also present a series of educational camps and have participated in a number of ARC Fellowships and Projects. Learn more about the Centre for Complex Systems online here.