Agent-based modeling
A guide to getting started with ABM in the social sciences
Joshua Epstein
A huge proponent of agent-based models, and committed to teaching. Is connected to a ton of interesting literature thinking about really interesting empirical social-scientific examples.
- Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling (2006), the philosophy and applications of agent-based modeling
- Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science From the Bottom Up (1996)
CoMSES Net
CoMSES Net is a great resource. Has a repository of example projects, along with resources.
The Network for Computational Modeling in Social and Ecological Sciences is an open community of researchers, educators, and professionals with a common goal - improving the way we develop, share, use, and re-use agent based and computational models for the study of social and ecological systems.
SimPy
This project is the simplest way to program event-driven continuous-time simulations. You can have agents wait, create other agents, etc. all while keeping their internal state.
For example, I created a model of networked individuals making and breaking relationships based on higher-level preferences about allocation of their time. I was able to track the degree distribution of this network over time without much problem:
Swarm
This project just seems dead (main page)