Inspiration
Van Dyke Parunak
Learning from and simulating of social behavior of all creatures great and small
For nearly four decades, my research has reflected a fascination with self-organization among social animals, and in particular the stigmergic mechanisms used by some insects. Most recently, I led a team in developing a social modeling system, SCAMP, that uses stigmergic computation to generate realistic human behavior. This talk will review the history of my work in this area, and describe the SCAMP modeling platform.
Jennifer Badham
Justified stories as one role for models in policy decisions
I will be talking about JuSt-Social, a model developed to support local planners in North East England in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The model supports decision making by projecting plausible responses to policy interventions such as social distancing. The presentation focuses on the changing relationship between policy, model and data as the epidemic developed, and the role of models as a tool for thinking.
Kavin Narasimhan
The Role of Evidence in Modelling Water, Energy and…Parties: Reflections from the Journey