Capturing Business Complexity with Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation
Useful, Usable, and Used Techniques

Seventh Annual Course on Business Applications
Monday, May 12 – Friday, May 16, 2008
Argonne National Laboratory, Building 900, 1200 Internationale Parkway, Woodridge, IL

General Description: This course is an intensive introduction to agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) with a focus on business applications. The first half of the course focuses on ABMS concepts from the perspective of company managers and analysts. The second half of the course focuses on ABMS implementation from the perspective of company software developers and includes extensive hands-on exercises. Participants are invited to attend the first session, the second session, or both depending on their interests.

Format and Topics: An intensive series of lectures and hands-on laboratories are used to introduce the foundational ideas and tools of ABMS and their application to business questions. Topics include the definition of agents, the design and construction of agents, the design and construction of agent environments, understanding of ABMS results, effective presentation of ABMS results, and applications of these core topics to specific examples. The examples include supply chain and market models. A Mathematica supply chain ABMS and a Repast Simphony supply chain ABMS are discussed in detail. Registrants are asked to provide a paragraph on the ABMS applications they are most interested in to help focus instruction on the business issues of greatest relevance to the audience.

Who Should Attend: Three groups should attend the course: managers involved in strategic planning or operations, analysts who design and operate models, and software developers who build models. The course introduces managers to ABMS, shows them how ABMS can be useful to their businesses, and describes how managers can present ABMS results to senior decision makers. Managers should attend the first session of the course. The course gives analysts the principles of ABMS design, discusses the fundamental features of the leading ABMS development tools and how these features affect ABMS design, and teaches them how to present ABMS results to decision makers. Analysts should attend both sessions of the course. The course gives software developers the basic principles of ABMS design and shows how to effectively use the leading ABMS development tools. Software developers should attend both sessions of the course.

Prerequisites and Requirements: There are no prerequisites for the first session. Prerequisites for the second session are a good knowledge of general ABMS concepts and a basic familiarity with programming in any high-level language or spreadsheet system.

Course Dates: The course dates are Monday through Friday, May 12–16, 2008.
Session I runs from Monday, May 12, 2008, through the morning of Wednesday, May 14, 2008.
Session II runs from the afternoon of Wednesday, May 14, 2008, though Friday, May 16, 2008.

Course Fees: The course fees are shown below. Reservations are on a first-come first-serve basis. Fees are due by April 30, 2008. Registration reservations will be forfeited if payment is not received by this time.

The registration intent form should be used to reserve a place in the course. Attendees will be contacted concerning payment arrangements following registration.

Register: Fill out the online registration page.