For anybody interested in how to use agent-based modeling to understand and examine a widely diverse and disparate set of complex problems, the Santa Fe Institute's online course, Introduction to Agent-Based Modelling begins on June 7th on Complexity Explorer.

SFI's Complexity Explorer was launched in 2013 as a web-based repository of educational materials related to complex systems science. Having participated in its very first course, Introduction to Complexity, I wrote about the experience along with details of some of its subsequent courses, see Going Further Into Complexity With Santa Fe Institute.

Introduction to Agent-Based Modelling was run for the first time in Fall 2015 and as with other Complexity Explorer courses welcomes a new cohort of students each time it is re-run.

In this video course instructor Anamaria Berea introduces the 2022 edition:

As outlined in the video, the topic of the course is agent-based simulations of complex systems and includes some "fun problems" such as how birds flock, how ants forage for food and how some neighborhoods end up culturally segregated. 

No programming background or knowledge is required as a pre-requisite. The course opens on June 7th and closes on August 27th. While it is in session, the first unit will be completely free and open. To continue through the course and to receive a certificate costs $50 and once the course is closed, the videos and quizzes will all be open and freely available. 

The course explores why agent-based modeling is a powerful new way to understand complex systems, what kinds of systems are amenable to complex systems analysis, and how agent-based modeling has been used in the past to study everything from economics to biology to political science to business and management. It shows how to build a model from the ground up and how to analyze and understand the results of a model using the NetLogo programming language.

If you want to know more about the programming environment used for this course, see Getting Started With NetLogo.

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