Undead Pedagogy: How a Zombie Simulation Can Contribute to Teaching International Relations

A global zombie outbreak constitutes a hypothetical event in world politics that could likely lead to the collapse of civilization. At the same time, the very threat of such a global catastrophe offers a unique experimental terrain on which to investigate various possible changes and developments in human interaction in social, economic, and political processes. In this article, we discuss our experience with using a global zombie outbreak-based simulation in International Relations teaching and our attempt at measuring the learning outcomes, taking our point of departure in the existing literature on active learning. Following an outline of the objectives, setup, and parameters of the simulation, we evaluate the results of the survey we conducted of the student participants and discuss the learning outcomes discerned

Learning in a Landscape: Simulation-building as Reflexive Intervention

This article makes a dual contribution to scholarship in science and technology studies (STS) on simulation-building. It both documents a specific simulation-building project, and demonstrates a concrete contribution to interdisciplinary work of STS insights. The article analyses the struggles that arise in the course of determining what counts as theory, as model and even as a simulation. Such debates are especially decisive when working across disciplinary boundaries, and their resolution is an important part of the work involved in building simulations. In particular, we show how ontological arguments about the value of simulations tend to determine the direction of simulation-building. This dynamic makes it difficult to maintain an interest in the heterogeneity of simulations and a view of simulations as unfolding scientific objects. As an outcome of our analysis of the process and reflections about interdisciplinary work around simulations, we propose a chart, as a tool to facilitate discussions about simulations. This chart can be a means to create common ground among actors in a simulation-building project, and a support for discussions that address other features of simulations besides their ontological status. Rather than foregrounding the chart's classificatory potential, we stress its (past and potential) role in discussing and reflecting on simulation-building as interdisciplinary endeavor. This chart is a concrete instance of the kinds of contributions that STS can make to better, more reflexive practice of simulation-building.Comment: 37 page

Systems practice in engineering: reflections on doctoral level systems supervision

The Industrial Doctorate Centre (IDC) in Systems, a collaboration between the University of Bristol and the University of Bath, offers an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in Systems Programme which is aimed at high-calibre engineers from graduate level to early/mid-career stage with the purpose of developing the systems-thinking capabilities of future leaders in industry. Research Engineers on this programme are based ~75% of their time in industry and focussed on a research project defined by their sponsoring company. This paper presents a personal reflection on the role of the systems supervisor on this programme with a focus on four areas of particular interest to the author i) alignment of industry needs and academic research, ii) developing an appreciation for the need for systems thinking, iii) navigating the systems literature, and iv) teaching research methods for doctoral research in systems. The purpose is to encourage and engage in debate on the development of systems practice in engineering

Simulation on sensory impairment in older adults:nursing education

Sensory impairments are identified as the most common chronic and disabling conditions of later life impacting significantly on the quality of life and safety of older adults. Hospitals and care environments can present significant challenges to older adults with sensory impairments to negotiate. Therefore, it is important to raise awareness on sensory and cognitive impairments with all healthcare professionals and nurses in particular, both to help develop an empathetic awareness on the impact of impairment and to minimize risk of adverse events. This article reports on a pedagogical innovation on the development and use of a simulation resource primarily on sensory impairments in older adults with first year nursing students within an undergraduate nursing programme in a Scottish university. The article also reports on students' reflections on their experience of participating in this simulation

How Resilient Are Our Societies? Analyses, Models, and Preliminary Results

Traditional social organizations such as those for the management of healthcare and civil defence are the result of designs and realizations that matched well with an operational context considerably different from the one we are experiencing today: A simpler world, characterized by a greater amount of resources to match less users producing lower peaks of requests. The new context reveals all the fragility of our societies: unmanageability is just around the corner unless we do not complement the "old recipes" with smarter forms of social organization. Here we analyze this problem and propose a refinement to our fractal social organizations as a model for resilient cyber-physical societies. Evidence to our claims is provided by simulating our model in terms of multi-agent systems.Comment: Paper submitted for publication in the Proc. of SERENE 2015 (http://serene.disim.univaq.it/2015/

Contested modelling

We suggest that the role and function of expert computational modelling in real-world decision-making needs scrutiny and practices need to change. We discuss some empirical and theory-based improvements to the coupling of the modelling process and the real world, including social and behavioural processes, which we have expressed as a set of questions that we believe need to be answered by all projects engaged in such modelling.  These are based on a systems analysis of four research initiatives, covering different scales and timeframes, and addressing the complexity of intervention in a sustainability context. Our proposed improvements require new approaches for analysing the relationship between a project’s models and its publics.  They reflect what we believe is a necessary and beneficial dialogue between the realms of expert scientific modelling and systems thinking.  This paper is an attempt to start that process, itself reflecting a robust dialogue between two practitioners sat within differing traditions, puzzling how to integrate perspectives and achieve wider participation in researching this problem space.&nbsp