Wednesday, January 02, 2019

Models from Teaching CSS Fall 2018

Most of the time when I teach a class instead of setting a final exam, I ask the students to carryout an end of semester research project. In my Introduction to Computational Social Science class this project entails the development of a computational model in an area of  interest to the student . The aim of this exercise is to cement what the students have (hopefully) learnt during the semester. I.e.: 
  • to understand the motivation for the use of computational models in social science theory and research; 
  • to learn about the variety of CSS research programs across the social science disciplines; 
  • to understand the distinct contribution that CSS can make by providing specific insights about society, social phenomena at multiple scales, and the nature of social complexity.
Below you can see some of the outputs from these projects this last fall. The models range in type from agent-based models, microsimulation to system dynamics models applied to a variety of topics from voting and political parties, the peer effects of students, urban decline, employment growth and rise and fall of civilizations and many other topics along the way.


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