Course: Agent-based modeling in the Social Sciences
1st ECPR Winter School in Methods and Techniques
Feb 11-18, 2012
Famagusta, Cyprus
Outline: Computational agent-based models (ABM) have become increasingly
popular in Political Science. The purpose of an ABM is to simulate the
emergence of macro-level social phenomena based on the interaction of
individuals. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to ABM,
drawing on examples across political science, sociology and economics.
Using the free NetLogo software, students learn how to design
agent-based simulation models from scratch and evaluate their output.
The course starts with a discussion of ABM principles, and proceeds with
a step-by-step introduction of essential ABM building blocks and their
corresponding implementation in NetLogo. Further topics include the
integration of empirical data, and the automatic execution of multiple
simulation ("batch") runs. In supervised lab sessions, students develop
their own implementation of an ABM. The exercises are based on the
simple NetLogo programming language, and no prior experience in
programming is required.
More information:
http://new.ecprnet.eu/MethodSchools/WinterSchools.aspx
(click on "Winter School" at the top right, choose "2012-Cyprus" in the
drop-down menu)
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Nils B. Weidmann
Centre for the Study of Civil War
Peace Research Institute Oslo
http://nils.weidmann.ws
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