In the past, this course was taught as POLS 909, "Topics in Methodology". The Spring, 2005, semester when it is offered with its own number and catalog listing. In Spring, 2005, the course will meet on Monday afternoon, 12:30-3:20pm, in Blake Hall 211.
Students are allowed to use any computer modeling language or tool. Models built with the Swarm Simulation System, a modeling library that is available for free from the Swarm Development Group, are the instructor's specialty and various exercises with Swarm will be considered.
The syllabus from the 2003 edition of this course is available below. The Spring 2005 edition will have the same basic outline, but some of the readings will be changed. In particular, the course will incorporate sections from a new book by Volker Grimm and Steve Railsback, Individual-based Modeling and Ecology (Princeton University Press, forthcoming). This is a good treatment of the general issues that motivate agent-based modeling and applications to the environment. The course will also incorporate the most recent version of the Opinion model that is discussed in Robert Huckfeldt, Paul Johnson, and John Sprague, Political Disagreement (Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Perhaps the most significant change I plan for Spring, 2005, is that the course will allow students a choice on the type of research project that will be done. Everybody will be required to "get their feet wet" by doing some targeted exercises with simulation models. These will be treated as "participation" effort, not a major part of the grade. Most of the grade, 80%, will be based on a final research paper. The writing options are
The list called SWARM-L. After you join, you can send messages to it by writing to swarm-l@ku.edu.
subscribe SWARM-L Your-Name-Here
For example, for me it was
subscribe SWARM-L Paul Johnson
Unless you are named Paul Johnson, you will have to adjust this a bit :)! You need to send that email from your regular email setup (I mean whatever program or "client" you use to read and send mail) because the listproc program reads your reply-to address from your headers (invisible stuff your email program sends).
I've got a "Swarm Headquarters" page setup. Look it over. It has software (for Linux users), links to the SwarmOnlineFAQ as well as a ton of Working Example Code and the in-progress UserGuide
I also have an on-line documents to help people learn about Unix and prorams that run on Unix.
Name Last modified Size Description
Parent Directory - C-programming/ 2007-03-02 10:10 - ComplexityReferences..> 2005-03-29 09:46 5.3K ConwayTutorial.txt 2007-02-05 20:57 1.0K Conway_Example_Sessi..> 2005-03-29 09:46 3.6K CricketBugs.tar.gz 2003-03-24 13:17 30K DataCulture/ 2004-10-11 12:26 - Ex10.1.txt 2000-03-15 10:38 5.5K Example1.c 2000-01-26 11:23 2.2K Example2/ 2004-10-11 12:26 - Exercise12.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 1.9K Exercise6.1.c 2003-02-25 11:41 2.4K Exercise6.2.c 2003-02-25 11:41 765 Exercise6.3.c 2003-02-25 11:41 857 Exercise6.4.c 2003-02-25 11:42 1.0K Exercise9.1.txt 2003-03-24 12:21 4.9K ExterminatorModels/ 2004-10-11 12:26 - GrossLectureNotes.fmt 2003-03-27 12:49 17K HammondAxelrod_Evolu..> 2003-04-18 11:45 168K LandUse_Simulations_..> 2005-03-29 09:46 30K NetworkCites.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 435 ObjC.pdf 2003-03-06 10:42 2.6M Pop-Level_NRM.pdf 2003-01-07 14:48 194K RailsbackHarvey_Ecol..> 2003-01-07 14:56 377K RopellaEtAl_NRM.pdf 2003-01-07 14:48 208K SFR_NRM_Results.pdf 2003-01-07 14:48 87K SwarmExercise2.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 4.3K cnotes1.pdf 2005-03-03 14:38 54K ecologyCites.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 9.4K farming-3.tar.gz 2005-04-13 08:03 66K farming-4.tar.gz 2005-04-13 21:08 35K fprintfnote.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 4.8K javaStudentTutorial/ 2004-10-11 12:26 - labExample.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 453 labExample2.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 9.7K labExample3.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 3.9K myExterminator2.tar.gz 2003-04-01 15:33 7.3K oldMaterial/ 2007-02-08 14:26 - sprintfnote.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 1.4K summarizingRuns.txt 2005-03-29 09:46 8.5K syllabus07.html 2007-02-08 14:31 26K syllabus07.pdf 2007-02-08 14:28 104K