Chapter 3 discusses methods to assess the quality of simulations. You learned about three different views of simulation quality. Suppose you lead a task force that is developing a simulation to provid

ITS 832 Chapter 3 The Quality of Social Simulation: An Example from Research Policy Modelling Information Technology in a Global Economy Professor Michael Solomon Introduction • The Quality of Social Simulation: • An Example from Research Policy Modelling • A simulation is good • “… when we get from it what we originally would have liked to get from the target” • Different views • Standard • Constructionist • User community • Chapter focus • Different approaches to assessing the quality of a simulation Simulation comparison Standard View • Verification • Does the code do what it is supposed to do? • Validation • Do the outputs resemble observations of the target? • Relies on the observability of reality • Must be able to compare simulation output to reality • Standard view may suffer from under -determination • Multiple incompatible theories may result from the same data Constructionist View • Compares • What you observe in the real world with, • What you observe as simulation output • Seems similar to Standard view, right? • Constructionists view all observations as constructions • Evaluation is not possible • Even observations of reality lack the ability to pass validation User Community View • Evaluation is carried out • Using the observations of the affected user community • Not just based on prior knowledge • Closer to “real” results • Often, results are influenced by multiple related factors Policy Modelling for Ex - ante Evaluation of EU Funding Programs Horizon 2020 Study Workflow Summary • Simulation quality depends on simulation process • Three different simulation views • Standard • Constructionist • User community • User community view • Most promising • Most work -intensive