xiv
Foreword
Because the field is so large and active, this book does not aim to cover all
aspects of agent-based modeling and its research challenges. The models are
presented to aid researchers with capability, on how they can build complex
agent functions for their models. This book will give a good feeling, making
researchers confident on writing their agent-based models and the complexities
which go behind it. Finally, the book should convince anyone of the advantage
of using agent-based models in their simulation experiments, providing the
case to move away from differential equations and build more reliable, close
to real models.
It is important to acknowledge all the people who have contributed to the
book and the FLAME framework, through their models, images and code,
maturing FLAME into an independent toolkit. It is a product of many years
of research, learning, ideas and collective efforts. Many people have come together to make this book a possibility. The author acknowledges that FLAME
is a product on various developers and researchers, part of the FLAME family
over the years. Developed as part of Simon Coakley’s PhD thesis, the framework has matured into a commercial tool, with very real world applications.
Lastly, I would like to thank Professor Mike Holcombe for his leadership,
imagination and limitless ideas during the years for FLAME’s growth and
also encouragements for putting this book together, for summarizing FLAME
efforts.
About the Author
Dr. Mariam Kiran is a well-recognized researcher in agent-based modeling,
high performance simulations and cloud computing. She has published numerous papers in these fields, both, in theory and practical implementations, exploiting grid and cloud ecosystems for improving computational performance
for multi-domain research. She has an extensive record of research collaborations across the world, serving as a board member for Complex Systems
research in CoMSES, and several joint projects funded by European Research
and UK Engineering Council. She is also active in education research of software engineering in team building and writing software for simulations.
Mariam Kiran received her PhD in Computer Science from University of
Sheffield, Sheffield UK in 2010. She is currently involved in many projects
at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, California, optimizing high performance
computing problems across various disciplines. Prior to this, she was working as an Associate Professor at University of Bradford, leading the Cloud
Computing research in the School.
The author’s research focuses on learning and decentralized optimization
of system architectures and algorithms for high performance computing, using underlying networks and Cloud infrastructures. She has been exploring
Foreword
Because the field is so large and active, this book does not aim to cover all
aspects of agent-based modeling and its research challenges. The models are
presented to aid researchers with capability, on how they can build complex
agent functions for their models. This book will give a good feeling, making
researchers confident on writing their agent-based models and the complexities
which go behind it. Finally, the book should convince anyone of the advantage
of using agent-based models in their simulation experiments, providing the
case to move away from differential equations and build more reliable, close
to real models.
It is important to acknowledge all the people who have contributed to the
book and the FLAME framework, through their models, images and code,
maturing FLAME into an independent toolkit. It is a product of many years
of research, learning, ideas and collective efforts. Many people have come together to make this book a possibility. The author acknowledges that FLAME
is a product on various developers and researchers, part of the FLAME family
over the years. Developed as part of Simon Coakley’s PhD thesis, the framework has matured into a commercial tool, with very real world applications.
Lastly, I would like to thank Professor Mike Holcombe for his leadership,
imagination and limitless ideas during the years for FLAME’s growth and
also encouragements for putting this book together, for summarizing FLAME
efforts.
About the Author
Dr. Mariam Kiran is a well-recognized researcher in agent-based modeling,
high performance simulations and cloud computing. She has published numerous papers in these fields, both, in theory and practical implementations, exploiting grid and cloud ecosystems for improving computational performance
for multi-domain research. She has an extensive record of research collaborations across the world, serving as a board member for Complex Systems
research in CoMSES, and several joint projects funded by European Research
and UK Engineering Council. She is also active in education research of software engineering in team building and writing software for simulations.
Mariam Kiran received her PhD in Computer Science from University of
Sheffield, Sheffield UK in 2010. She is currently involved in many projects
at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, California, optimizing high performance
computing problems across various disciplines. Prior to this, she was working as an Associate Professor at University of Bradford, leading the Cloud
Computing research in the School.
The author’s research focuses on learning and decentralized optimization
of system architectures and algorithms for high performance computing, using underlying networks and Cloud infrastructures. She has been exploring