STEAM Factory Member Ayaz Hyder Presents on Agent-Based Modeling
STEAM Factory member Ayaz Hyder discussed agent-based modeling as a part of a two-part presentation at the Interdisciplinary Methods Festival on Thursday, July 20. The RMC Interdisciplinary Methods Festival brought together students, researchers, faculty and staff to explore and learn about interdisciplinary research methods.
Ayaz began his talk by discussing systems thinking, which focuses on seeing things as a part of a whole. When this type of thinking is translated into action, it’s referred to as system science, which includes agent-based modeling as one of its methods. According to Ayaz, coming up with an agent-based model may take years, but during the second part of the presentation participants were able to program a very simple agent-based model to get an idea of how the process works.
This method of doing research has applications from public health to business. In his own research, Ayaz has created an agent-based model to simulate the impact of clinical and social interventions on reducing the infant mortality rate in Ohio. The state of Ohio is ranked 47th in the nation for infant mortality, and among African Americans the infant mortality rate is at the same level as it was in Syria while going through a civil war. By looking at the problem at the systems level, Ayaz and his team were able to intervene on four different levels of organization that were related to the infant mortality system.
By using agent-based modeling, researchers can look at problems in the long-term and come up with long-term solutions. Ayaz recommends that this type of thinking and researching be disseminated throughout Ohio State. For example, Colleges across OSU that are working on same issues, such as the opioid epidemic or food insecurity, could leverage each other’s expertise and break data/knowledge silos to more effectively and holistically research the issue. In this manner, systems science may be a vehicle for greater interdisciplinary collaborations to tackle complex and large-scale issues in Ohio and beyond.