An agent-based, stochastic modeling seminar for the Ronin Institute

In October of last year, Gordon gave a seminar on agent-based, stochastic modeling for The Ronin Institute entitled "There's more to life-science data than being really, really, really ridiculously good looking". For any of you not familiar with the movie Zoolander, this is a parody of a quote by the movie’s main protagonist in reference to his career as a male model. As biological modelers by profession and big fans of this movie ourselves, we enjoy telling people that neither our advancing years or expanding waistlines, have prevented us from pursuing careers in modeling!

This seminar gives a very broad overview of some of the work Gordon has done over the last few years, both in the development of agent-based biological modeling methods, and in their application to real-world biological problems. The Kappa modeling language that Gordon describes in the seminar, is the platform that we actually use in the commercial biological modeling projects that we undertake for our clients.

The seminar also discusses in a broader context, some of the challenges facing biologists who want to model the systems they study using computers - particularly with regard to representing the astronomical complexity of biological systems, and the development of biological modeling platforms that allow biologists to work in the idioms that they are used to using when they are describing the systems that they study.

The seminar has now been posted online by The Ronin Institute and is publicly available. Enjoy!

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