Modeling Chicago (and Everybody in It)
ChiSIM, the Chicago Social Interaction Model, is a novel, large-scale agent-based model of people and places in Chicago along with the daily activities in which residents engage. To support planning and policy making, ChiSIM models the behaviors and social interactions of all Chicago residents, represented in the model at the individual level. Places consist of geo-located parcels in the city, such as households, schools, workplaces, hospitals, and general quarters, such as nursing homes, dormitories, jails, etc.
During a simulated day, agents make decisions on their activities and sentiments, move from place to place, hour by hour, engaging in social activities and interactions with co-located agents. Examples of applications for this model include the adoption and utilization of new technologies and practices, assessing population-wide clean energy usage, reactions to environmental effects such as pollution, forecasting socially mediated processes such as the spread of infectious diseases and the spread of misinformation, estimating the potential effectiveness of social programs and possible interventions before they are implemented, and many others.
Speaker Bio:
Charles Macal, PhD, PE, is Argonne Distinguished Fellow, Senior Systems Engineer, and Group Leader of the Social & Behavioral Systems Group within the Decision & Infrastructure Sciences Division of Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Macal is recognized as a globally as a leader in the field of agent-based modeling and simulation and has led interdisciplinary research teams in developing innovative computer simulation models in application areas including global and regional energy markets, critical materials, electric power, healthcare and infectious diseases, environment and sustainability, and technology adoption. Dr. Macal holds appointments at the Computation Institute (CI) of the University of Chicago and the Northwestern-Argonne Institute for Science and Engineering (NAISE). He received a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences from Northwestern University and holds an M.S. in Industrial Engineering and a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from Purdue University.