This course will be of greatest interest to Honors students majoring in one of the social sciences (especially anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology), and assumes that all enrolled students have at least some college-level social science background.  Further, it should be of interest to anyone who is deeply curious about (a) how computers can be made to simulate human behavior and (b) how such simulations can be usefully employed as a scientific tool.

The course will be taught as a hands-on laboratory.  In it, you will learn how to create, analyze, and validate computer simulations.  And you will create your own simulation using freely available software called NetLogo.  No prior programming experience is required, although a little bit of experience of this type many be helpful.  The first half of the semester will be devoted to exercises and assignments designed to help you learn the basics of the NetLogo programming language and gain an understanding of how computer simulations operate in general.  Then, during the rest of the semester you will work with a lab partner to develop your own simulation of social behavior in a specific topic area that the two of you will select from among a set of alternatives provided by the instructor.  As part of this, you will be asked to give several brief in-class presentations on your simulation (e.g., regarding its objective, structure, implementation of theoretical constructs, and results obtained) and get constructive feedback from the class that will be helpful for further developing the simulation.  We will also do some background reading on the philosophical underpinnings of modeling as an approach to understanding the real world.