Complexity Science Hub

🚲 Cleaner air, smoother traffic, safer streets, healthier lives – just some of the benefits of hashtag . According to CSH External Faculty member Michael Szell, every kilometer traveled by bike generates €0.18 in societal benefits. Across the EU, that currently amounts to €24 billion, he shared in his talk at the Complexity Science Hub yesterday.

Cities, in particular, stand to benefit from more cycling through improved public health and a better chance of meeting climate targets. So why isn't bicycle infrastructure advancing faster? Michael pointed to two main challenges: political ones – also because current network planning lacks success metrics – and, of course, technical ones.

His answer: data-driven planning.
Together with colleagues, he develops open-source algorithms that help urban planners design better bicycle networks. Their goal is to make the tools free, transparent, reproducible, and accessible – not only for planners, but also for citizens. Interactive visualizations help turn data into a compelling vision for urban cycling.

💪 The result: 𝗕𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗞𝗶𝘁 (https://bikenetkit.org/) – an open toolkit for bicycle network planning (launch is coming soon!)

👋 Join us in welcoming Rayan Succar to the Complexity Science Hub as a new postdoctoral researcher!

Within the 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 research group, Rayan sits at the intersection of theoretical network science and data science, developing tools to infer the structure of complex systems from large datasets, drawing on dynamical systems theory, control theory, and statistical physics.

Rayan holds a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from the Lebanese American University, and completed his PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at New York University . His dissertation addressed theoretical questions in network science alongside empirical challenges in complex urban systems – including patterns of violence in the United States.

🌟 Welcome, Rayan! ⠀

🔗 More about Rayan: https://csh.ac.at/rayan-succar/
🔗 More about the Foundations of Complex Systems research group: https://csh.ac.at/research/research-topic/foundations/

🌟 Big news for Katharina Ledebur – and great news for ME/CFS research in Austria! Four new projects are getting underway to advance our understanding of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), including Katharina's.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗮'𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗶𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼
Her project, "TRACK-PEM: Tracking and Analyzing Post-Exertional Malaise," funded by , focuses on Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM) – the defining symptom of ME/CFS, characterized by a delayed worsening of symptoms that occurs after minimal physical or mental activity.

Katharina and her team aim to develop classifiers that can detect PEM and estimate its severity. To do so, they combine clinical data and questionnaires with everyday measurements from wearable devices – heart rate, step counts, sleep – across three cohorts: patients with ME/CFS and matched controls, a post-COVID cohort, and a general population sample.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 – 𝗠𝗘/𝗖𝗙𝗦
ME/CFS, or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, is a severe, highly heterogeneous neuroimmunological disease. Beyond PEM, those affected typically experience severe fatigue, pain, sleep disturbances, and a range of neurocognitive, autonomic, and immunological symptoms. According to the German Society for ME/CFS, more than 40 million people worldwide are believed to be affected.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀
Alongside Katharina's, the FWF is funding two further projects: Mirjam Bachler (Medizinische Universitaet Innsbruck) on individualized therapies for ME/CFS-PAIS with PEM, and Lilian Konicar (Medizinische Universität Wien) on individualized neurotherapy for ME/CFS with PEM. A fourth project, on the biological subtypes of ME/CFS, is led by Matthias Wielscher (Medizinische Universität Wien) and funded separately through the WE&ME Award.

🔗 More about the projects: https://www.fwf.ac.at/en/research-radar/10.55776/PAT2999025

📸 Christian Jobst