MBSSM hands-on tutorial

About the tutorial

The Mechanism-Based Social Systems Modelling (MBSSM) architecture is a rigorous new approach to the unified development of agent-based modelling (ABM) components using middle-range theory. In this hands-on session, participants will be introduced to the MBSSM architecture. Using a tutorial agent-based modelling problem, participants will be taken steadily through the process of representing the ABM as a realisation of middle-range theory, and implementing the ABM in the MBSSM architecture in C++.

Aims

The MBSSM session is a practical hands-on tutorial, introducing the MBSSM architecture through a well-known example: Schelling’s segregation model.In this tutorial, we will look at how each of the elements of the Schelling model get represented using MBSSM:

• Building the agents
• Expressing the mechanisms that constitute Schelling’s theory
• Defining the grid where the agents reside
• Defining the dynamics of the model
• Creating the agents in the simulation, and placing agents on the grid

By the end of the session, you will have built an ABM using Schelling’s theory that you could then, if you wish, efficiently extend or replace with other explanatory mechanisms for segregation phenomena.

Table of contents

• Prerequisites
• The Schelling segregation model
• Analysis and design
• File and folder structure
• Writing the model's header files
• The first compile
• Writing the model's source files
• Compile and run