1pm friday 28th June: Nick Malleson and Alison Heppenstall (Leeds) on "When to channel the power of agent-based modelling for the simulation of behaviour in social systems"

1-2.15pm, Hanson Room, Humanities Building, University of Manchester.  All welcome!

SPEAKERS: Nick Malleson and Alison Heppenstall (Leeds)

TITLE: "The force is strong in this one"  When to channel the power of agent-based modelling for the simulation of behaviour in social systems

ABSTRACT:
Over the last decade, agent-based modelling (ABM) has become established as a commonplace research method for the simulation of social systems.  Examples can be found from the research domains of crime, health, transport, economics etc. One of ABMs most promising offerings is the potential to equip individual agents with cognitive models. This leads to the replication of important behaviour at both the micro and macro level. However, many published models do not explicitly incorporate human behaviour or do so inappropriately.

This paper will discuss the contexts in which ABM is the most suitable methodology for simulating social systems and present a general typology for discussion.  We will present cutting-edge work from crime, economics and archaeology, illustrating different approaches (through demonstrations) to simulating behaviour, including the role that new data sources (such as massive crowd-sourced data) will play.