• Wikipage of this lecture: LectureAgentBasedModeling

This lecture will introduce the notion of Agent Based Modeling. To be able to understand Agent Based Modeling first an understanding has to be created on the following issues:

• Understand the concept of generative science
• Understand what an agent is and what an agent based model is
• Understand the notion of generative and bottom up modeling and how it is different from other modeling techniques

The Agent Based Modeling software used for this course is freeware, and can be downloaded at the netlogo site: http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo. The model used during this lecture is the Life Model. This can be found in the NetLogo Models Library. You should familliarize yourself with NetLogo to work succesfully. It is recommended to play around with the models and change parameters and observe changes in behavior and try to understand why this is happening. You can do this using the interface part of the model. Some more information on the workings of the model can be found under the tabs information and procedures, where the code can be found. If you would like to understand the code, you should download the programming guide from the NetLogo site.

ToDo: Start suggesting simple changes to the model that would result in interesting behavior.

• Describe the proposed change in rules of interaction / states of agents
• Create a hypotheses on how this will affect the system

When experimenting with the model, there is no correct solution that is specifically desired. Depending on the hypothesis you made, different behavior should arise. What is required for the development of understanding is that you can explain why the hypothesis you made is correct, or falsified.

The lecture slides and materials can be obtained by clicking on the link below.