Catching Up

I was asked my one of my two advisors, Prof Dozier from USC to explore a possible blog to keep my thought and exploration on track. So here I am…blogging about my work (lol)

As my first entry I want to cover a few items. Starting off with what got me to this point, the work im exploring and my milestones which I plan to complete short term and long term.

Lets get started…

The beginning.
I began exploring the thesis topic over the holidays last year with the guidance of Prof Dozier. He pointed towards looking at the model library within NetLogo and determining if there were any Models which captured my interest. I chose 10-15 models, so yes there were a few.

I wont bore anyone with the list (will upload it when time permits) but I narrowed the list down to 3 potential models I wanted to focus on

1. Language Change
2. Rebellion
3. Wealth Distribution

Initially the Language Change model look very promising since it allowed me to think about how language changed. It didnt stop there, I then began to think about ideas, rumors, and news and how it changes a network (a group of people). This took me down another road of, “How can we help people make decisions we want them to make?”. This would have been great for marketing. Unfortunately I continued to think about the Rebellion model.

A quick side note, I crossed out “Wealth Distribution” due to the research already completed in this field. I wanted something relatively new (or at least it seems to me). So I chose Rebellion.

The model.
I chose Rebellion because it seemed like the model was off. For example the perssived grievance wasnt as clear cut as the model suggest. There was more to it, how other around the agent (person) was expressing its anger, how its immediate environment was being affected, if the person had a job or not, etc etc. There was just so much more to it.

The model is relatively simple. It simulates a world were its citizens have a grievance, a view on the legitimacy of its government, number of cops, and how far away the agents can see a cop. Working within these variables the world can be manipulated to either rebel or stay at peace.

Milestones

1. Identify models I could explore (Done)
2. Reduce the list of models down to 5 (Done)
3. Reduce the list of models down to 2 (Done)
4. Isolate the Model to dive into (Done)
5. Read paper which this model uses as a foundation (Done)
6. Explore additional papers which might shed more light into the subject.
7. Create a hypothesis bucket to explore.

The question now is, where am I going? and Where do I want to take this?

Will have another update this week with additional notes and next steps. I want to start exploring a hypothesis by the end of next week.

Armando Padilla