Download An Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling: Modeling Natural, Social, and Engineered Complex Systems with NetLogo (The MIT Press) djvu

Uri Wilensky and William Rand’s An Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling: Modeling Natural, Social, and Engineered Complex Systems with NetLogo is the single best book I’ve encountered for anyone interested in agent-based modeling (ABM) in any discipline and at any level (K-12, undergraduate, graduate, professional).

At nearly 500 full-color pages, Wilensky and Rand’s book does an excellent job progressively walking through the decision to use agent-based modeling, creating simple ABMs, extending preexisting ABMs, creating more complicated ABMs, analyzing ABMs, and conducting verification, validation, and replication.

One of the greatest strengths of Wilensky and Rand’s approach is that IABM (Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling) is that it is a hands-on, exploratory book intended for use with the NetLogo multi-agent modeling environment, which is freely available for download. Each chapter of IABM includes many illustrative examples, all implemented and executed in NetLogo. Moreover, the example models and code are not just available to readers (again, free of charge), but are conveniently bundled in the current release of NetLogo. In other words, rather than just read about the models, the reader is encouraged to run the models his or herself. The Chinese proverb says it best:

Tell me and I’ll forget;
show me and I may remember;
involve me and I’ll understand.

Beyond just running the models described in the book, each chapter concludes with a substantial number of exercises or “Explorations,” usually numbering 20 to 30. Each Exploration is a potentially deep opportunity to learn more about ABM by getting involved rather than just reading, as the Chinese proverb suggests.

Wilensky and Rand do a very nice job of using illustrative models from a variety of disciplines; one example might come from the social sciences and the next example from ecology. This is helpful since each reader may come from a different background or have different experience or interests.

The book requires no special background in mathematics or computer science, which is a huge plus in terms of accessibility to a broader audience.

The authors suggest that it could be used as a textbook for an undergraduate course on complex systems or a computer science course on ABM, or even as a supplement to science, social science, or engineering classes. Graduate students who wish to use ABM in their research – regardless of discipline – would likely find IABM one of the best possible places to start. Even experienced researchers with no agent-based modeling experience would benefit from IABM as an introduction to the method.

While the book is aimed at high-level undergraduates and graduate students, it is sufficient to successfully create very detailed and scientifically valuable agent-based models in NetLogo. The authors reserve a final chapter for “advanced” applications potentially of greater interest to individuals interested in specific sorts of ABM: computationally intensive models, participatory or stakeholder-driven modeling, robotics, spatial and geographic information systems (GIS), and network science / social network analysis. They select just a handful of NetLogo’s more advanced capabilities to describe in this chapter, but include helpful references enabling interested readers to learn more.

I can’t find anything about IABM to criticize, though reading it cover to cover (as I did) is certainly an investment of time, albeit a worthwhile one for the reader wishing to learn and use agent-based modeling.

One of the best ways to explore the science of complexity and how complexity theory can be applied to the numerous real-world phenomena we experience and study is through agent-based modeling. Uri Wilensky and Bill Rand have written an excellent book to help anyone do just that, and I recommend An Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling: Modeling Natural, Social, and Engineered Complex Systems with NetLogo to anyone wishing to get started with agent-based modeling.

Wilensky and Rand make ABM accessible and, importantly, thoroughly enjoyable to learn.

Weird book. Has great background info, but just about impossible to use as a guide to building the example models from following along in the text. Sometimes whole sections of code are missing or never explained from the text, including times when that code is needed to get the model into setup mode. You'll have to find the model online and figure out what's missing on your own in order to get almost any model actually working, even then, you'll be left guessing and some individual parameters that the web version don't even allow to to see (such as parameters like size of grid and individual patches).

Well written. To make it practical to learn by doing, the text emphasizes use of NetLogo tool, created by Wilensky. But, the book nevertheless takes the time to explain more general concepts, and to point out which concepts and terms are NetLogo-specific and which are general concepts and terms to the broader field. The book is not designed as a comprehensive reference for NetLogo, so readers that are developing in NetLogo will still need to use other documentation. The sample models do a good job of illustrating the different classes of models and the different types of problems for which ABM has been used. I'm using the book both to learn ABM for professional use, and to teach it to my 8th-grade daughter who is interested in the topic for a science fair project, and it is accessible to both of us.

Great book, I was exposed to netlogo during undergrad research and at that time knew the principals, but lacked more concrete application of the language and tool. This book more than did the job by filling in the gaps, it did code walk through, explanation and comparison. It also dove into exploration of multi-run automation and data output using the behaviour space tool. With this knowledge I got my first ABM created to explore some rather complex relationships... Highly recommend it.

What an awesome book to have and own! The writing style and approach are excellent and easy to follow by anyone who is learning the concept ABMs for the first time, and even an excellent source of information to experience ABM modelers! I couldn't ask for anything concise and easy to understand!

The book came in a lot faster than the expected arrival date. I have read through parts of the book and it appears to be well written. There are some minor details that are missing or text does not match the images. Overall, the book is helpful, and it is definitely a good starting point.

One of the best introductions to Agent-based Modeling I've seen. Extensive explanations of the paradigm and perspective, lots of easy-to-understand examples dissected for the reader, and clear concise guidance on how to start using NetLogo to build one's own ABMs.

Such a revealing book, especially loved the chapters on validity, and the carefully crafted example models.