The use of simulation models has widely spread in recent years, in various fields of academic research. Models are being developed to represent and try to better understand all kinds of systems: population dynamics, epidemics, transportation systems, macro-scale systems, micro-scale systems, etc. In some scientific areas, models and in silico simulations have become essential to help study in vivo situations.
However, simulation models are necessarily a simplification of reality, and hypotheses have to be made when developing a model. Thus every model can (and needs to?) be questioned: Is it relevant to tackle the research question behind it? How to extract significant knowledge from the model? What kind of dynamics can it exhibit? How does each mechanism of the model impact those dynamics? Is every mechanism really necessary? These are just some of the many questions a model developer has to answer in order to really know and understand his/her model!
During this week, you will learn a step by step model exploration methodology, including innovative sensitivity analysis, calibration, and validation techniques. This school will be organized around a strong theoretical component, various individual and group practical sessions, challenges, and moments to share about modelling practices. You will be invited to apply those techniques as we go, on a case study model adapted just for you! Invited speakers will also be presenting actual applications of these techniques in various fields of study (ecology, geography, epidemiology...), and time slots will be open in the programme for you to apply what you learned on your own model (if you have one, not mandatory at all!), with our help if necessary.
All the techniques you will learn during the school will be implemented through the OpenMOLE platform, which has been developed as an open source software at the Complex Systems Institute in Paris since 2008.
The eX Modelo school is meant to be interdisciplinary, so whatever your field of study is, as long as there is some modelling or simulation involved, you belong in this school!