Introductory Course in Individual and Agent-Based Modeling

The class is intended primarily for graduate students planning to use ABMs in their research. The lecturers are ecologists so most of their example models will be from ecology. Scholars from other disciplines are also welcome, as long as they can complete an independent project without discipline-specific support from the instructors.

After the two-week course, participants will know and understand: (a) What ABMs are and when and why they are used. (b) What modeling is, and how it works. (c) What decisions you have to make to formulate an ABM. (d) How to implement and analyze a simple ABM using Netlogo, and to teach oneself NetLogo’s more advanced capabilities. (e) The role of observed patterns for designing and parameterizing ABM. (f) The potential and limitations of ABM.

The course should enable participants to better understand the rationale and methodology of existing ABMs, think clearly about developing their own ABMs, and collaborate with professional modelers. The course also provides a basis for further self-instruction in agent-based modeling, preferably in teams working on a real modeling problem and using references such as Individual-based Modeling and Ecology (Grimm and Railsback 2005).