Seminar

Agent Based Modelling for Busy people

Organised by	Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS)
Date	Thu 15 February 2018 09:00 until Fri 16 February 2018 17:00
Duration	Registration deadline: Monday 1 February 2018
Venue	Leeuwenborch, building number 201 Hollandseweg 1 201 6706 KN Wageningen +31 (0)317 48 36 39

A 2-day introduction to Agent-Based Social Simulation

This is a hand-on taster of the technique of agent-based simulation as applied to social, ecological and policy issues. It uses a series of 8 example models, starting from the simple and building in complexity, to give an understanding of how the approach works. The sessions alternate between looking at the code of such simulations and playing with the results, broken up by a few more general talks on its application as well as its pros and cons. You will have a chance to play with some more complex simulations that are applied policy issues. There will be lots of chance to ask questions and get help as you progress through this structured course. You will need (a) a laptop of your own (b) an internet browser and (c) have installed a 5.* version of Netlogo from the internet. If you want to read a book before we start, we recommend "Simulation for the Social Scientist" (2nd Edition) by Gilbert and Troitsch. Wageningen Silico centre (www.wur.nl/silico) supports the course, and can assist in any further contact about particants’ own studies and models.

Lecturer

Bruce Edmonds is a pioneer of the use of Agent-based modelling of complex systems. He is based at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, where he heads the laboratory for policy modelling. Bruce is an erudite person and a humorous, lively teacher. His website www.cfpm.org gives all possible information about his publications and current activity.

Schedule

Session 1	2018-2-15	9:00-17:00
Session 2	2018-2-16	9:00-17:00

Target group and min/max number of participants

people who wish to work with, or at least know about, agent-based models, but do not have the time to take a regular hands-on 4-week course such as INF-50806. This includes professors and researchers from all around Wageningen University and Research. The focus is on modelling for policy support, so the course will be of value for those studying socio-technical, socio-economic or socio-ecological systems.

The minimum number of participants is 10, the maximum 20.

Course fee

The course fee is 50 euro.

Fee includes coffee/tea, and course materials.