CSC 107 - Term Project
Assigned March 19th
Overview
The purpose of this project, worth 20% of your final grade, is to improve your research, writing
and communication skills as well as give you an opportunity to explore in-depth a particular
area of agent-based modeling.
Topic Selection
This project is a group project.
You must select a partner for this project and your topic for you presentation by Thursday,
March 26th.
Your project can be one of the two following types:
- Investigate and modify an existing NetLogo model. Your modifications must be
substantially different behavior, not just tweaking parameters.
- Design and investigate your own agent-based simulation.
Some suggestions for topics include
- Consequences of overfishing
- Climate change
- Standing ovations
- The wave at sporting events
- Slime mold
- Flocking behavior
- Other voting methods
- Complex ecology studies
- Sugarscape
- Immune sytems
- Rumor propogation
Remember, think small and simple, you want to model one piece of the situation, not every
little detail. Think about what might matter and what you can ignore.
Project Groups
| 1 | 2 | Topic |
|---|
| Sam Bonham | Andrew Jarboe | Extensions of Voting Theory |
| Megan Braley | Michale Jarboe | Altruism |
| Lina McMillan | Erik Champney | AIDS |
| Ayo Kuku | Jordan Pope | Slime Mold |
| Nichole Couch | Brooke Carrier | Hunting |
| Rebecca Bundrick | Meg Shanks | Standing Ovations |
| Tate McIntyre | Brooke Wadlington | Wave |
| Clifford Shepard | Marshall McInnis | Climate Change |
| Allie Cortes | Lauren Raynes | Rumors |
| Chris Youngblood | Leo Davis | Flocking/Fireflies |
| Taylor Collins | Shakaria Ware | Traffic Jams |
| Jay Frazier | Catherine Walsh | Wealth Distribution |
Background Overview
On Wednesday, March 31st, I will need a one-page overview of your project task.
- Topic Background
- What are you investigating and why is it interesting?
- Motivating Question
- What questions are you trying to answer with this modeling project?
- Important Parameters
- What are the inputs I will need to investigate this question?
- Hypotheses for the Conclusions.
- What do I expect to see as the output of the model?
Model Descriptions
On Wednesday, April 14th, I will need a one-page description of your agents and
environment in your model. Be sure to specify what
situations your agents might encounter
and what their actions will be in these situations.
Also include a diagram of the state transitions for the behvaior of your agents.
Rough Draft
On Friday, April 23rd, I will need a rough-draft of your project paper. It should
follow the guidelines below
Project Organization
Your paper must be at least 6 pages. You should include the following sections
- Introduction
- Background
- Model Description
- Variants Explored
- Evaluation
- Conclusion
- References
Your paper must reference at least one mathematical formulation present in your model. You
should include a diagram describing the agent behavior and the patches behavior, and make
good use of graphs to demonstrate your results.
Presentation
Finally, a 15 minute in-class presentation will be required. Time and material
should be split evenly between all project partners. Your objective in
the presentation is to fill us in on the main ideas of how mathematics
is found in your topic. Leave
at least one (1) minute for questions at the end of your presentation.
Practice is strongly encouraged prior to your actual presentation. The best
way to be comfortable with presenting in front of an audience is to practice.
You will be graded on both the organization and the presentation
of your talk. The 15 minute time-limit will be strictly enforced to
ensure equal time for all presentations.