Cover -- Previous sessions -- Organizers -- Lecturers -- Seminar Speakers -- Participants -- Auditors -- Preface -- Contents -- Course 1. Introduction to phase transitions in random optimization problems -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Basic concepts: overview of static phase transitions in K-XORSAT -- 3. Advanced methods (I): replicas -- 4. Advanced methods (II): cavity -- 5. Dynamical phase transitions and search algorithms -- 6. Conclusions -- Appendix A.A primer on large deviations -- Appendix B. Inequalities of first and second moments -- Appendix C. Corrections to the saddle-point calculation of <N2> -- References -- Course 2. Modern coding theory: the statistical mechanics and computer science point of view -- 1. Introduction and outline -- 2. Background: the channel coding problem -- 3. Sparse graph codes -- 4. The decoding problem for sparse graph codes -- 5. Belief Propagation beyond coding theory -- 6. Belief Propagation beyond the binary symmetric channel -- 7. Open problems -- Appendix A.A generating function calculation -- References -- Course 3. Mean field theory of spin glasses: statics and dynamics -- 1. Introduction -- 2. General considerations -- 3. Mean field theory -- 4. Many equilibrium states -- 5. The explicit solution of the Sherrington Kirkpatrick model -- 6. Bethe lattices -- 7. Finite dimensions -- 8. Some other applications -- 9. Conclusions -- References -- Course 4. Random matrices, the Ulam Problem, directed polymers & growth models, and sequence matching -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Random matrices: the Tracy-Widom distribution for the largest eigenvalue -- 3. The longest common subsequence problem (or the Ulam problem) -- 4. Directed polymers and growth models -- 5. Sequence matching problem -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- Course 5. Economies with interacting agents -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Models of segregation: a physical analogy -- 3. Market relations -- 4. Financial markets -- 5. Contributions to public goods -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- Course 6. Crackling noise and avalanches: scaling, critical phenomena, and the renormalization group -- 1. Preamble -- 2. What is crackling noise? -- 3. Hysteresis and Barkhausen noise in magnets -- 4. Why crackling noise? -- 5. Self-similarity and its consequences -- References -- Course 7. Bootstrap and jamming percolation -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Bootstrap Percolation (BP) -- 3. Jamming Percolation (JP) -- 4. Related stochastic models -- References -- Course 8. Complex networks -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Network expansion and the small-world effect -- 3. Degree distributions -- 4. Further directions -- References -- Course 9. Minority games -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The minority game: definition and numerical simulations -- 3. Exact solutions -- 4. Application and extensions -- 5. Conclusions -- References -- Course 10. Me.