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For the final week of the Shodor Scholars Program, the eleven students divided into five
groups to work on week long projects. After much brainstorming, the students agreed to "pollution
and contamination" as an overall theme for the projects. Here, we have posted brief descriptions
of each project and links to web-friendly versions of some of the models that the students developed.
Student Projects:
Ben and Carlos
- Ben and Carlos built an involved Stella model that uses real-world data to simulate pollution
caused by the emissions of various car models. Importing data from www.fueleconomy.gov, they were
able to model real-world values for a variety of automobiles makes and types. However, since their
model always shows pollution increasing without bound, they pointed out that it is only applicable
in a short term range, because over long periods of time some of their basic assumptions would no
longer hold.
See their model
Parv and Raley
- Parv and Raley used a number of Agent Sheets worksheets along with an excel model to replicate
the consequences of a nuclear spill that might result if a train carrying nuclear waste wrecked.
One thing they discovered while working on their project, is that it can be sometimes hard to code
expected behaviors and real data into Agent Sheets. Therefore their AgentSheets model became more
of a visualization, while their predictions came from other calculations.
This group also overcame the adversity of switching projects midweek, after their original idea to
study long-term effects of low-level radiation didn't materialize into substantial scientific
inquiry.
See their model
David and Jordan
- Jordan and David built a NetLogo model from scratch that simulates biological magnification,
the process by which pollutants can work their up the food chain by accumulating in predatory animals
that repeatedly eat contaminated prey.
Though we often encourage newcomers to the field of computational science to try adapting an existing
model, Jordan and David took on difficult task of building their model from scratch. As a result,
they spent less time refining the graphical aspects of their model, but learned a great deal about
NetLogo, programming, and the difficulty of starting from ground zero.
See their model
NOTE: Applets created with NetLogo may not be compatible with certain browsers. If you would like to
download the actual NetLogo model, right/control click here.
NetLogo software is free and available online.
Adam, Anirudh, and Tyler
- This group adapted a NetLogo model to represent competetive and cooperative behaviors. Certain
"polluters" corrupted resources while "enforcers" tried to stop their disruptive activity.
Meanwhile, the average citizen was caught in the middle of the conflict. Because of the general
scope of their model, the group found research and validation difficult, but the model is still a
very promising base. With just a little adaptation it could be applied to a variety of different
situations.
See their model
NOTE: Applets created with NetLogo may not be compatible with certain browsers. If you would like to
download the actual NetLogo model, right/control click here.
NetLogo software is free and available online.
Mary and Amos
- Mary and Amos primarily used AgentSheets, but also recreated their model on NetLogo. Their
project simulates bioremediation, a process by which bacteria or fungi could be introduced to digest
a pollutant. The first applet models bacterial bioremediation, and the second models fungal
bioremediation.
The students had a difficult time finding real world data to help validate the model, but they think
that is due to lack of research in the field. Although this made their work more difficult, it means
that there is potential for future study here!
See their bacteria model
See their fungus model
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