UDES is designed for teaching the complex nature of city interactions, and also a method for representing them – agent-based simulation.
It is an excellent example model, accessible to all, with both interactive and customizable elements. Let’s take a closer look…
Traditional Marketing Mix models attempt to explore the tradeoffs amongst different marketing channels and the spends associated with them. The weaknesses of these models are, generally, their static nature and the restrictive assumptions required to apply their results. For these reasons, an American pharmaceutical company, one of the largest in the world, engaged with Sterling Simulation to explore the benefits of agent-based modeling, prior to launching a new product. The use-case was presented by Scott Hebert, Vice President of Sterling Simulation at the AnyLogic Conference 2015.
The military aircraft maintenance turnaround process is highly complex and includes multiple interacting and parallel workflows between humans and machines. Lockheed Martin, one of the largest companies in the aerospace, defense, security, and technologies industry sought to improve decision-making in regards to the complete turnaround process and to identify process changes that could be implemented to reduce turnaround time. There are two distinct features unique to the project. One being the use of AnyLogic to model people, machines and workstations, and how they interact, which identified previously unknown workflow peculiarities. The second, a portable Android tablet application developed and tested by the team for workflow authoring and data collection that provided the input data to the process simulation model.
We are proud to announce Sadegh Asgari, Winner of the IISE Construction Division Best Student Paper Award. Sadegh presented his research and received the award at the Industrial & Systems Engineering Research Conference (ISERC) organized by the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE) last month. IISE is the global association of productivity and efficiency professionals specializing in industrial engineering, healthcare, ergonomics and other related professions. The organization provides a place where these varied fields come together to advance the engineering profession through networking, training, and knowledge sharing (http://www.iienet2.org/Annual2/details.aspx?id=560). Sadegh completed the three-year research project as a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University and is currently Research Scientist at New York University.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more than 200 million stray dogs worldwide and that every year, 55,000 people die from rabies while another 15 million receive post-exposure treatment to avert the deadly disease (http://www.naiaonline.org, 2011). The International Companion Animal Management Coalition held their 2nd International Conference on Dog Population Management in Istanbul, Turkey March 3-5th, 2015. The Conference aims to promote awareness, discussions and information sharing on Dog Population Management (DPM)). Other primary goals are to provide effective and humane DPM strategies to reduce the incidence of zoonoses, disease of animals which are communicable to humans (http://www.dogpopulationmanagement2015.org/home.html, 2015.
At the AnyLogic Conference 2014, Kyle Johnson, Global Business Services in Advanced Analytics and Optimization at IBM partnered with Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, presented a “Multi-Agent-Based Simulation of a Complex Ecosystem of Mental Health Care.” To date, the research paper was published in the Journal of Medical Systems and received the attention of the United States House of Representatives [1]. The project revolves around the housing cycle of the United State’s Severely and Persistently Mentally Ill (SPMI). An SPMI patient defines someone with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, or Major Depressive Disorder, and this group constitutes about 1.7% of the US population. To better understand the condition and possible improvements, IBM Global Research and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals used an agent-based approach to model the SPMI living situations over the second half of the 20th century.
The latest winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Angus Deaton is showcased in Ben Schuman’s blog from October 19th, 2015. Ben Schumann a senior modeler at decisionLab with a Ph.D. in Complex Systems Simulation. Moreover, as you know, Ben is a significantly experienced AnyLogic User, who works with diverse clients such as the MoD, Rolls-Royce or GSK. He handles project delivery from start to end, managing team members, and client communication. Typically, both economics researchers and mathematical modelers take into account certain parameters and the model outcomes are defined by the modeler. In the case of Deaton’s work and agent-based modeling, a different approach is used by defining individual behavior, and studying how it plays out.
The largest public mental health facility in the United States is not a hospital; it is the Los Angeles County Jail. A Severely and Persistently Mentally Ill (SPMI) patient generally defines someone with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, or Major Depressive Disorder, and this group constitutes about 1.7% of the US population. To better understand the condition and possible improvements, IBM Global Research and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals used an agent-based approach to model the SPMI living situations over the second half of the 20th century. Kyle Johnson, Managing Consultant with IBM Global Business Services presented this project at the 2014 AnyLogic Conference. He works within the Advanced Analytics and Optimization branch of IBM BAO.
There has been a dramatic increase in investment by both venture capital and strategic investors in new robotics technologies for supply chain automation. These investments have been driven by rapid changes in expectations for consistent, fast, flexible consumer experience across all channels. Traditionally, automation and associate order fulfillment software has been optimized around a limited set of products (or SKU’s) and for the requirements and constraints of a specific channel between manufacturer and consumer. This may result in different, and potentially incompatible technical solutions being implemented at the same distribution center. The new expectation is that the retailer provide a consistent, and hopefully superior, consumer experience, regardless of which channel is most convenient for the consumer to use.
There are many cases of simulation modeling in healthcare. Application areas can vary, from process optimization in hospitals to macrolevel agent-based epidemiology models. Due to its multimethod nature, AnyLogic allows models to be built at various abstraction levels. A good illustration of how researchers and consultants can apply the same tool to different problems is the three models built by the Stockholm County Health Administration in Sweden. The models included macro, meso, and micro abstraction level applications in healthcare simulation. The microlevel model simulated the maternity ward in a hospital that was currently under construction. The purpose of the model was to support discussions related to which resources, capacity, and work methods were required in the new ward. One relevant discussion was whether to keep mother and child in the same room during their entire stay or to have dedicated rooms for antenatal care, delivery, and postnatal care.