Syllabus/Schedule

Below is a working outline (or overview) of the subjects for the semester, week-by-week, subject to some change.  See the posts to the Blogs and Announcements Page for details on each week’s topics and readings.


Part I:  Introduction to Life (Conway’s as well as the biological kind), some Models in NetLogo, and a few basic NetLogo Programming Commands and Concepts

Week 1: Introduction: Multi-Agent Simulation from Cellular Automata and Conway’s “Game” of Life to IBMs (Individual Based Models), and an Introduction to NetLogo

Read: Start reading the NetLogo 3.1.2 Users Manual.  Work through the first two tutorials this week. Also Read: More about John Conway’s Game of Life at the following websites: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Lifewww.radicaleye.com/lifepagewww.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html.  Experiment with various implementations.  Try the following, and be sure to look at different initial patterns as well as different rules. www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/, and www.ibiblio.org/lifepatterns/. Try to create your own patterns.

Week 2 Basic Programming Concepts–Introduction to NetLogo

Read and Study The NetLogo code (model) for the implementation of Conway’s Life, and also the Ants model. (note: Life can be found in the computer science section, and Ants in the biology section.)

Important note: Although there are a few NetLogo commands that are complex, or subtle, or otherwise difficult to understand, most of them are fairly simple and straightforward. But there are quite a few of them! It is important to begin learning a few each day, and trying them out, to build up a vocabulary for the language. This will make your job much easier later on.

Part II:  Delving Headlong into NetLogo

Week 3Boolean data, local variables, and an introduction to agent sets.

Week 4-5: Reporters, Button and Sliders, and Iteration, plus an introduction to Algorithm Efficiency

PART III:  More Advanced Multi-Agent Simulation and NetLogo

Week 6: Computer Hardware plus an Introduction to Plotting

Week 7:
Parameters and Reporters: Passing information to and from a Procedure


Spring Recess: March 26 – April 3. 


Week 8: Graphics and Sound: using an image to initialize patches


Mid-Term Exam: TBA


Week 9: The Goals of Computer Simulation

Simulation Reading (second half of week): Before class on Friday, read Chapter 1 of Individual-based Modeling and Ecology by Volker Grimm and Steven F. Railsback.  Downloadable in PDF format at:

  • http://www.humboldt.edu/~ecomodel/book.htm

Or readable on-line at:

  • http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s8108.html

Simulation Reading: Before class on Friday, read the article “Less is More: Agent-Based Simulation as a Powerful Learning Tool in Materials Science” by Blikstein and Wilensky.  Downloadable in PDF format at:

  • www.blikstein.com/paulo/documents/papers/BliksteinWilensky-LessIsMore-AAMAS2005.pdf

Week 10: More Tools for Experiments  — Making use of the Behavior Space.  Plus Lists and Strings

SPRING SYMPOSIUM on FRIDAY, APRIL 15:  NO CLASS


PART III: NetLogo Wrap-Up and Survey of some Important Concepts in Computer Science

Week 11: Recursion
Work harder on term project

Week 12 :
Wrap-Up