Transcript Simulate THAT! - Project MOSAIC

Simulate THAT!
Jim Caristi
Dept. of Math & Computer Science
Valparaiso University
My Goal for the next 15 min.
Give you a sense of the power and simplicity
of using a modern simulation language to
develop and interpret models very quickly
To do modeling well requires
good tools
“Good” means
• easy to learn
• easy to use
• powerful
Simulation Software
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Arena
Simscript
Stella
MapleSim and Mathematica
VenSim
NetLogo
and many others
Arena
• Discrete event and continuous modeling
• Commercial software from Rockwell
Automation
• Full version lists at $1895 per license
• Academic version free – limited to 150 entities
• Download from
http://www.arenasimulation.com/
Go to “Academic Programs”, then “Academic
News”, and to the McGraw-Hill website
Simulate this:
• Barbershop
• Customers arrive with inter-arrival times
exponentially distributed with mean 5 min.
• Barber cuts hair in 20 min. (normally
distributed, s.d. 5 min.)
• Want to know how many customers in 8
hours, max and average number waiting, time
in system, barber utilization
Simulate THIS:
• Bacteria on a leaf in the field grow at a
temperature dependent rate
• The more there are, the faster they grow
• Leaf has maximum carrying capacity
• Other stuff
The student perspective
• Programming in Arena is no problem for
anyone
• Calculus is no problem (only a very few
exceptions)
• Statistics is a BIG problem for almost everyone
Some very cool student projects
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Zombie outbreak
Grizzly bear metapopulation
Dutch elm disease
Volleyball scoring change
Baseball
Intersection or roundabout?