NetLogo is a visual programming environment for agent-based modeling - think of it as a virtual laboratory where you can:
- Create “agents” (people, animals, organizations) that follow simple rules
- Watch how individual behaviors create complex collective patterns
- Test “what if” scenarios by changing rules and seeing results
Used by Researchers Worldwide (Not Just Programmers!):
- Economists model market dynamics and trading behaviors
- Sociologists study how social norms spread through communities
- Political scientists explore voting patterns and coalition formation
- Urban planners analyze traffic flow and city development
- Epidemiologists track disease spread and intervention strategies
Examples of famous models built in NetLogo:¶
- Thomas Schelling’s segregation model (Nobel Prize winner)
- Robert Axelrod’s cooperation tournaments
- Models of financial markets and economic bubbles
Robert Axelrod’s cooperative tournament model implemented in NetLogo.
The last model you will have to download and run in your own NetLogo installation.
Spend some time exploring the models in the NetLogo Models Library. Click in the links above and read the Info tab for each model to learn more about what they do. Don’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of information - just get a sense of the variety of models available.