Do you want to carry out research that will help ensure vulnerable children get the right support? Are you passionate about social work? Exciting funded PhD opportunity in modelling policies for vulnerable children available at the University of Surrey in collaboration with Surrey County Council. For further information on this opportunity and how to apply to be part of an important transformation journey, visit the link below:
https://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=98905
PhD Studentship (ESRC South Coast DTP) – Simulation modelling to inform the design and delivery of skills training for the future UK workforce
A fully funded studentship awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SCDTP) commencing in 2018/19 Academic Year.
It is often quoted in the media that in 25 years’ time, around 65% of today’s primary school children will be doing jobs that do not currently exist. It is possible that many of today’s lower-skilled jobs will be done by robots in future! Nevertheless, policy decisions regarding the education and skills training that this generation will require have to be made today. This mixed-methods research will focus on lower-skilled jobs and selected economically deprived populations, and will combine qualitative data analysis with computer simulation modelling (using a system dynamics approach) to develop a decision support tool for policy-makers.
Supervisory Team: Dr Steffen Bayer (Southampton Business School, Lead Supervisor) (S.C.Bayer@soton.ac.uk), Prof Sally Brailsford (Southampton Business School), Prof Pauline Leonard (Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology)
Further details: https://jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=SCDTP947517TR
For further information about this project, please contact me (S.C.Bayer@soton.ac.uk). For questions relating to the application procedure, or for more information about the SCDTP, please visit the SCDTP website or contact us at scdtp@soton.ac.uk.
This opportunity is open to UK residents. https://esrc.ukri.org/skills-and-careers/studentships/prospective-students/am-i-eligible-for-an-esrc-studentship/
The closing date for applications is 25th June 2018.
Strategy Dynamics have announced the new self-taught, online course “Learn Dynamic Business Modeling”: http://sdl.re/courses. The course comes in two parts with 17+ hours of instruction, follow-me demos and many models to keep, covering a wide range of business types and issues. Try the free http://sdl.re/modeling-getting-started/ classes first. Instructors are welcome to use these online courses with students, so class time is free for modelling real-world cases. Any questions on this or other topics – just ask at http://sdl.re/forum.
THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF BREXIT: A CHALLENGE FOR THE SYSTEM DYNAMICS COMMUNITY
The advent of Brexit will cause a shock to the economy which many commentators believe will be the most profound for a generation, possibly even since the Second World War. Anticipating what might transpire, without the aid of a modelling tool, seems slim. System Dynamics is well-known as a methodology for projecting dynamic behaviour in a complex system and so the challenge of modelling the economic effects of Brexit over the next ten years or so is one which the SD community should respond to. Below is an outline of such a ‘challenge’: can the SD community respond and contribute to this endeavour in strategic economic planning?
Although the financial crisis in 2008 took almost all economists by surprise, in the Brexit case we don’t have to attempt to foresee the event itself but we do need to consider the economic consequences. If the dynamics inherent to this economic shock can be modelled then the government and the Bank of England will know which trends to monitor closely and they will be placed on a footing to respond proactively rather than reactively.
This task should not be regarded as a competition but as a challenge which illustrates the utility of SD for economic modelling
THE DETAILS OF THE CHALLENGE
Make your submission to the President of the UK Chapter
There is a survey being carried out to capture attitudes of our Modelling & Simulation (M&S) community towards both Reproducibility and Open Science in simulation publishing.
There are major concerns that the results in many published peer-reviewed articles cannot be reproduced or verified independently. Some journals are changing their policies to address these issues. Open Science approaches go further in that they encourage the open sharing of scientific artefacts (e.g. data, software, methods, processes, etc.) under appropriate terms and conditions to enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods. Publishing policies in both Reproducibility and Open Science could have a major impact on how we approach M&S research in the future.
The survey consists of six sections and will take around 20-25 minutes to complete. The results will be published as both a report and a journal paper. Both will be open access.
The survey will be open until December 2018.
Access the survey at https://www.isurvey.soton.ac.uk/25864
THEME : Building resilient cities through simulation (including System Dynamics)
VENUE: THINKLab pod, University of Salford, 7th Floor Maxwell Building, The Crescent, Salford, Greater Manchester, M5 4WT
DATE: Thursday 6th July 2017
TIME: 1:30 to 5:00pm
Description:
A summer network event was held at the University of Salford, hosted by the ThinkLab and organized by the UK Chapter’s student representative, Hisham Tariq. It was titled “Resilient Cities” and attended by over 20 people. The event provided an interdisciplinary opportunity to discuss the application of SD to the significant challenges facing our cities, an opportunity for networking, and introduced SD to students and members of the faculty at Salford.
The UK Chapter of the System Dynamics Society held a network meeting on the theme of system dynamics in climate change mitigation. The meeting was held on December 5th, from 1pm to 5pm, at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change.
The meeting began with four speakers: Prof Frank Boons talked on the relationship of circular economy and climate change, Dr John Broderick about his experiences in running the C-ROADS climate model, Dr Martin Reynolds from the OU about critical systems thinking and sustainability, and Dr Danial Schien presented work on modelling of the carbon footprint of digital media.
There was a short plenary in which examples of mitigation (both successful and otherwise) that are of interest to participants were identified. Groups then explored their chosen example through causal loop diagramming and other SD related methods.
Celebrating excellence in System Dynamics
CALL FOR PAPERS
The UK System Dynamics Students Colloquium will take place on the 13th April 2018 (pm) in Cardiff (day 2 of our UK Conference), featuring:
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The UK System Dynamics Students Colloquium is now open for Abstract Submission. A short abstract (not exceeding 300 words) is invited for presentation or poster submission. Students who wish to be considered for the student prize must evidence their work with up to 20 pages of a research paper, inclusive of references, for review by a panel of leading system dynamists. All submissions must be made on or before the deadline. We thank you for your contribution to the UK Chapter of System Dynamics Society.
For more information, please visit
http://systemdynamics.org.uk/student-colloquium/
or email the organisers
student@uksystemdynamics.org
The System Dynamics Colloquium, previously known as the PhD colloquium will take place on the day before the System Dynamics Conference (August 6th), in Reykjavik, Iceland. The colloquium is meant to foster exchange amongst early career system dynamicists as well as exchange between them and those who are already established in the field.
We are encouraging any early stage System Dynamics members of the UK Chapter to submit their work to the colloquium this year.
We would also like to draw your attention to the fact, that this year, scholarships will be available for application, for individuals that have submitted, and had their papers approved by the colloquium. This is an effort from our part, and the Student Chapter, to encourage participation from individuals using system dynamics from all over the world, and from a variety of fields.
Please find all of the information about the System Dynamics Colloquium in this brochure:
Date & Time: Tue. 13th March 14.00-16.00
(no booking requirements, please just turn up on the day, the room is plenty big!)
Venue: Mast House Building, University of Plymouth, Plymouth
SD Heathcare Network Event – Plymouth Directions
Presentation summaries:
THE ROLE OF SYSTEM DYNAMICS IN MODELLING FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE : Martin Pitt : Associate Professor of Healthcare Modelling and Simulation
Director of PenCHORD (Peninsula Collaboration for Health Operational Research & Development) NIHR CLAHRC South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC)
Outlining how SD both has and can be used to model health and social care as a general introduction to its application and potential in this field. The presentation will focus on how the insights from SD modelling can be usefully applied to improving service delivery and how SD sits in relation to other modelling approaches such as discrete event simulation and mathematical methods.
SYSTEM DYNAMICS APPLIED TO MENTAL HEALTHCARE PLANNING : Tim Hobbs, PhD; Director Dartington Service Design Lab
This talk will outline a case study example of the use of SD to map and plan the development of mental health services in the SW of the UK. Drawing lessons from a recently commissioned project, it will discuss the benefits and limitations of using this approach based on direct experience.