Agent-Based Models » PSC 120 (ABM)

PSC 120 (ABM)

Agent-Based Modeling (ABM)

Winter 2017

Psychology 120

Units

Prerequisite

Psychology, 1, 41, though not necessary
Some knowledge of computer programming is helpful, though not necessary

Instructor: Jeff Schank

Email: jcschank@ucdavis.edu

Office: 268D Young Hall

Phone: 752-6332

Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 1:00-2:00 PM and by appointment

TA: Jay Jefferson

Office: Young Hall 189

Email: jpjeff@ucdavis.edu

Phone:

Office Hours: 11:30am – 1:30pm on Thursdays for PSC 120

Course Objectives: You will become familiar with the basic ideas, methods, and programming skill required for agent-based modeling. You will also learn how to apply these ideas and techniques to the study of social and biological systems.

When:

Lectures and Labs: Tuesday and Thursday: 2:10 PM-4:00 PM

Where:

Lectures and Labs: 188 (lecture and lab) Young Hall

Grading:

Assignments

There will be three written assignments (one page, single spaced review of an assigned paper) that you will email to jcschank@ucdavis.edu and jpjeff@ucdavis.edu.

Please name your file with your own name. If I turned in an assignment, the file name for the first assignment would be:

Schank Jeff Assignment 1.docx

Labs

The course is a mixture of Lectures and Labs. There will be several labs throughout the quarter to work on programming problems and how to use and analyze agent-based models, the number, length, and frequency will be determined by the overall pace of the course. I try not to let people fall behind. Labs can be done in group. If you decide to form group, the maximum size is 3 people. If you complete a lab as a group, turn in one lab report with all your names on it. All members of a lab group will receive the same grade.

Quizes

There will be three quizzes during the quarter that vary in type (i.e., multiple choice).

Final or Final Project

You have two options for the end of the course. You can take a multiple choice and short answer final. Or, you can do a final project which is a virtual experiment plus writeup.

Course Grade

The total grade will consist of

Course Grade = Final or Final Project (30%) + Assignments (20%) + Labs (25%) + Quizzes (25%) = 100

Course Evaluations

In order to receive feedback from all of you, 1% point will be added to your course grade for filling out the online evaluation at the end of the quarter. Just email Jay (jpjeff@ucdavis.edu) when you have finished, and 1% will be added to your grade. This also handles any “closeness” issues. For example, suppose you had 89.08% for a course grade. Close to an A-, but it is not 90%. If you fill out the course evaluation, your course grade becomes 90.08% and an A-. Thus, I don’t round up any grades even 89.99% to 90.00%.

CLASS SCHEDULE – Winter, 2017

Agent-Based Modeling (PSC 120 – Schank Instructor)

Lecture times – TR, 2:10-4:00 PM

1. Tuesday – Jan 10 – Organization and Introduction to Virtual Experiments

Lecture Notes: Lecture 1

DG Demo Virtual Experiment

Assignment 1

2. Thursday – Jan 12 – Introduction continued, Eclipse Programming Environment and Java

Installing Eclipse and Mason.pdf

PSC120WIN.zip

PSC120MAC.zip

3. Tuesday – Jan 17 – Introduction to Java