Paper

Below is the structure you are expected to follow for your final project. Please stick to the word lengths restrictions of 2000 words for undergraduate students and 3000 words for graduate students. A good sample paper using agent-based modeling and the ODD protocol can be found here. Your paper should be a separate page on your website. Papers are due by 11:59pm on Friday, June 5th. LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

1. Introduction:
a) Provide a background to your topic using the scientific literature.
b) Identify the justification for your study using what you have learned in the course. This justification should explicitly identify why a complex systems and simulation modeling approach is necessary to achieve your objective.
c) State the objective of your research project.
d) Briefly outline how will achieve this objective.

2. Methods:
a) Use the ODD protocol to describe your methods.
b) Describe how you will conduct a sensitivity analysis.
c) Describe how you will evaluate your model.

3. Results:
a) Present the results from your model simulations using text, figures and videos. Use the narrative approach (Millington et al. 2012) to describe how the specific processes that you are simulating manifest in the spatial patterns emerging from the model.
b) Discuss findings from the sensitivity analysis.
c) Discuss findings from model evaluation.

4. Discussion:
a) Using what you have learned about complex systems in the course in concert with your results, explain the phenomenon that you are looking at as a complex system. That is, you should be able to describe concepts such as feedbacks, path dependence, non-linearity, autonomous decision-making, and emergence 3 through your results. This is where you will demonstrate that you have an exceptional understanding of the theoretical concepts learned in lecture and through the assignments.

5. Conclusion:
a) Provide a brief summary of your project.