ASB 494 / CSE 494: Social Simulation

Fall 2006

Professor: Marco Janssen

TTH 1:40 - 2:55

ECG G319

Course content
This course introduces simulation techniques to study social processes such as diffusion of knowledge and culture, cooperation and conflict, crowd behavior, and foraging. The students would have an opportunity to learn agent-based modeling and learn how they are applied to study social phenomena. Besides the study of the techniques, the students derive a brief introduction to relevant social science theories. The students will have hands on experience in writing simulation models of a number of social phenomena.  The class also has a number of small assignments and one final project.

Topics covered in the course are: complex adaptive systems, emergence, cellular automata, agent-based modeling, social dilemmas, iterative games, spatial games, crowd behavior, diffusion processes, social network models, artificial societies.

Students will work in group projects of social scientists and computer scientists to apply the techniques to concrete research questions.
 
Course format
Lectures, discussion, computer lab, student, group research project

Required book

Nigel Gilbert and Klaus Troitzsch (2005) Simulation for the Social Scientist, second edition, Open University Press.

Software