This lecture (slides embedded below) provides some historical background and motivation for System Dynamics Modeling (SDM) and Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), two other simulation modeling approaches that contrast with Discrete Event System (DES) simulation.

In particular, in this lecture, we briefly introduce System Dynamics Modeling (SDM) and Agent-Based/Individual-Based Modeling (ABM/IBM) as the two ends of the simulation modeling spectrum (from low resolution to high resolution). The introduction of ABM describes applications in life sciences, social sciences, and engineering (Multi-Agent Systems, MAS)/operations research. NetLogo is introduced (as part of preparation for Lab 4), and it is used to present examples of running ABM's as well as the code behind them.

This lecture is also coupled with notes discussing the Lab 3 (Monte Carlo simulation) results and general experience. These comments focus on interval estimation (which is right 95% of the time, as opposed to point estimation that is right 0% of the time) and the role of non-trivial distributions of random variables (as opposed to just their means).