“Agent-based Modeling for Studying Social and Ecological Systems” is an intense 2-day program primarily for students and researchers who are willing to apply agent-based modeling techniques in their area of work. Agent-based models or multi-agent systems are new method of studying complex social and ecological systems. Agent-based models can be built to capture the dynamics of these systems and study the emergent phenomenon while characterizing the behaviours of individual components and their interactions with the environment. Besides once a model is built, these can be used for testing various scenarios and hypothesis, deriving strategies and management options for a variety of social and ecological phenomenon.

The course will focus on researchers to appreciate and apply agent-based modeling in their teaching and research providing insights on building, implementing and analyzing the models. The course will use NetLogo, a free-and-open source agent-based modeling environment and provide hands-on exposure through relevant examples.

Session Details:

Session 1: Set the thinking – appreciating complex systems

Session 2: Overview of studies and applications of ABM

Session 3: Modeling as Story-telling

Session 4: The basics of ABM

Session 5: Working with NetLogo: the world of turtles, patches, observer and procedures.

Session 6: Modeling the system – appreciating the process

Sessions 7-8-9: Group work: Hands-on ABM

Session 10: Presentation by participants

Tool exposed: NetLogo.

Faculty: The course will be taught by Dr. H. S. Sudhira and Dr. K. V. Gururaja.

Eligibility: This program is open to participants from any domain and not limited to engineering, sciences, ecology and social sciences. Participation is limited to 20 applicants. Background of programmming in any language can be an advantage, but not essential.

Place: Bangalore, India.

Important Dates:

• Application deadline: 7th Feb 2013

• The last date to make payment: 12th Feb 2013

• Course in Bangalore: 16th – 17th February 2013

Charges: Rs. 4,000 per participant. This does not include residential facilities. Charges include study material and lunch on both days.

Application: Interested participants are encouraged to apply online here. Candidates will be short-listed first on the basis of their application. For more details, please contact: courses@gubbilabs.in