The ESSA Summer Schoolwill take place at Hamburg University of Technology from July 15-19, 2013.

It aims at giving an introduction to agent-based modeling and simulation in the social sciences. Therefore, helpful tools and standards for the modeling process should be presented.

To guide the students through the summer school, the lectures will be organized along the research process of social simulation. Starting with a general introduction, the summer school proceeds with modeling issues and documentation. Afterwards, the design of simulation experiments as well as simulation data analysis and validation are addressed. Also issues ‘outside the box’ are discussed, such as the application of ABM in industry. Methods and helpful tools for the application of ABM are mentioned and introduced along the week..

In the morning, an overview of the day and a short classification of the planned lectures and tutorials into the research process are given.  This should make the stage of research addressed that day explicit.

Afterwards, lectures and tutorials will go into the subjects.

In the later afternoon, the participants have the opportunity to discuss specific topics and questions in small group discussions. Here, moderated discussions take place. The lectures of the day will be invited to take part. This format should activate the students to debate about the presented content of the day and support the knowledge transfer. By this, discussions between participants and lecturers will be promoted. Furthermore, concrete support for own simulation projects may be provided.

To ensure the effectiveness of discussions, the participants will be asked to send out a document before the summer school. In this document, they should give an overview about their research and aimed simulation projects, as well as concrete (methodological) questions they would like to discuss within the summer school. These questions will be the basis for the group organization and help the moderator to guide the discussion. (The moderators may be recruited locally)

In the evening, all come back together to summarize the day and the key elements of the group discussions. Central insights and important progress may be written down on moderation cards and hang out on a white board in the seminar room.

In the end of the week, on Friday, the students present a short progress report. Here, the students should summarize their personal insights and describe the progress they have gained over the week (> “answers to the questions they came with”) on one slide.

For further information see the following link: The ESSA Summer School at Hamburg University of Technology from July 15-19, 2013