Nathaniel Osgood, University of Saskatchewan
November, 2009
This informal course provides students who have already completed an introductory health dynamic modeling course with a hands-on introduction to the use of the AnyLogic package for agent-based modeling of health dynamics.
I maintain materials another page for a more thorough graduate course that provides an introduction to dynamic (simulation) modeling for public health (CMPT 858). This course provides a basic hands-on introduction to the theory and practice of Agent-Based and System Dynamics modeling in the context of health issues, and includes both more extensive lectures and tutorials than are presented here. Slides and screencast recordings the latest version of this more extensive course are now available online. By contrast, the older materials represented here is better viewed as a series of implementation-oriented tutorials. These tutorials seek to provide students with hands-on experience with the mechanics of building agent-based models, particularly at the population level. In general, the material presented here is a subset and less refined version of that presented in the complete course.
In order to allow for following both the audio and screen shots, the audio-video presentations below are recorded in QuickTime format. You may want the free QuickTime player to play them. I apologize for the limited quality of these presentations
Lecture 1 -- Orientation & Modeling Types (Audio-Video Recording)
Lecture 2 -- Overview of the Anylogic User Interface (Audio-Video Recording)
Lecture 3 -- Simple Manual Agent Based Model Creation (Tutorial on Building a Simple Agent-Based Model in AnyLogic.mov)
Lecture 4 -- Incorporating Births & Deaths into a Model (Audio Video Recording Only)
Introduction, Individual Based Modeling, Tools & Tradeoffs
AnyLogic's supported modeling Methodologies & their Interactions
Overview of the Agent-Based Modeling Process
Common Classes And Their Relationships
Discrete Inter-Agent Dynamics Via Messaging
Continuous Intra Agent Dynamics
Network and Continually Spatially Embedded Agents
Video on Vensim calibration tools
Reference A -- Miscellaneous Coding Tips
Tutorial A -- Creating an Agent Based Model using the Wizard
Tutorial B -- Creating an Resource and Network Based Model using the Wizard
Tutorial D -- A Hybrid Agent-Based and Patient-Flow Model
I plan to offer public short courses presenting more complete syllabus in coming months. Please let me know if you are interested, and we can add you to our mailing list.