2019 International Workshop on Agent-Based Modelling of Human Behaviour (ABMHuB)

Agent-based modelling has a long history of success in many related fields from economics and cooperative behaviours, to social conflict, civil violence and revolution. However, its use remains very limited in studies of how human interaction is affected by more complex aspects of human behaviour, such as personality, emotional state and conflict.

ABMHuB aims to bring together researchers who are interested in using agent-based modelling to understand human behaviour. It is a combination of computational modelling, psychology and behavioural science, which is a new and growing area of research. We want to build a focused group of people, bringing together many of the researchers in this young field for the first time. The motivation behind this workshop is to address some of the significant issues in psychological research today. Human experimentation can create ethical issues and has been increasingly difficult to conduct, making it more difficult to progress our understanding in the area. Alife models offer the capability to create realistic laboratories for which to conduct such experiments. A workshop in this area can encourage researchers to use behavioural modelling to assess, challenge or even replace competing theories of human behaviour. Introducing rigorous computational modelling to this contentious area will help strengthen the field of psychology and behavioural science.

ABMHuB is held in conjuction with the 2019 Conference on Artificial Life in Newcastle, UK.

ABMHuB Workshop Outcome

ABMHuB Workshop Schedule

The ABMHuB workshop will be held on Wednesday 31 July 2019 at the Urban Sciences Building (Room USB.G.003), Newcastle Helix, from 10:30am to 1pm.

Call for Papers

The workshop seeks to bring together ideas, approaches, concepts, and perspectives from agent-based modelling and human social systems. The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers from these connected fields, to engage across the disciplines, to inform of latest findings, to transfer discoveries and concepts from one field to another, and to inspire new ideas and new collaborations across the theme. Discussions of practical applications, ethical implications, and use cases from industry are also welcome.

Contributions will be invited in the following areas:

• Agent-based modelling of human behaviour and organisational behaviour
• ALife models of individual behaviour, diversity, and group performance
• ALife models of human personality, emotions
• ALife models of human communication, trust, conflict, and conflict resolution
• ALife models of collaboration, cooperation, competition
• Agent-based modelling of economic paradigms such as negotiation and bargaining, games, auctions, markets
• Agent-based modelling of location behaviour, spatial patterns, geographical systems, urban evacuation, driver route choices, traffic flows, transport logistics
• Agent-based modelling of human systems such as smart grids, app stores, economies
• ALife models of the emergent effect and propagation of communication in human systems
• Use of agent-based modelling to evaluate or understand existing findings in behavioural science and psychology
• Incentives, reward structures, reinforcement learning
• Collective intelligence, teamwork, coalition, distributed problem solving
• Social networks, socio-technical systems
• Social simulation, interactive simulation and emergent behaviour
• Education technology, personalised teaching and training.

Information for Authors

There are two options for submission:

• Extended abstracts: 2-page maximum length and should report on industry experience or previously published work.
• Full papers: 6-page maximum length and should report on new, unpublished work.

Please use one of the following templates to format your submission:

• Word Template
• LaTex Template

All submissions will undergo a peer review process. Extended abstracts will be reviewed for timeliness, novelty, and quality. Full papers will be reviewed for timeliness, novelty, scientific quality, and sound methodology.

Accepted full papers and extended abstracts will be published online proceedings. Authors of selected contributions will be invited to expand their work for submission to a special issue of the Artificial Life journal.

Submission Process

Important Dates

Full paper

• Submission deadline: 17 May 2019 31 May 2019 (Anywhere on Earth)
• Author notification: 14 June 2019
• Camera ready deadline: 28 June 2019

Extended abstract

• Submission deadline: 14 June 2019 (Anywhere on Earth)
• Author notification: 28 June 2019
• Camera ready deadline: 7 July 2019

ABMHuB workshop: 1 August 2019 31 July 2019

Organising Committee

• Dr Soo Ling Lim (Department of Computer Science, UCL)
• Professor Peter J. Bentley (Department of Computer Science, UCL)
• Dr JoEllyn Prouty McLaren (TalentDOC Ltd)
• Professor Randall S. Peterson (London Business School and TalentDOC Ltd)