Session Description: Ecological systems usually consist of many degrees of freedom and different sources of stochasticity. This results in complex behaviors where it is difficult to identify the most important mechanisms governing the system's dynamics. Mathematical models are a central part of theoretical ecology because they allow us to propose and test hypotheses that highlight specific mechanisms. They can also be used to inform or test experimental results.
Unfortunately, building mathematical models usually requires advanced knowledge of mathematics and scientific programming. These skills typically require specific and long training. Some programming languages, however, are more user-friendly than others. GoldSim is a high-level programming language with a very intuitive visual interface. Models in GoldSim look like networks or cybernetic diagrams, which make them reasonably intuitive. GoldSim is also specifically designed for dynamical and stochastic complex systems, which makes it amenable to many problems in biology and ecology.
We have used GoldSim in our lab to build models for the metabolism and ecology of bacteria and bacteriophages. We have seen that these models are intuitive for non-programmers: they can better understand what the model does just by looking at the interface, and they need relatively short training to start interacting with them and even adapting them to their necessities.
In this workshop, I plan to explain the basic functionalities of GoldSim, and how it can be used for modeling ecological systems by scientists with a strong background in programming.
GoldSim Player is a free version that allows any user to view, navigate, and run models. In my workshop, I plan to present and discuss a series of models for ecology. Attendants would be able to download these models from a repository and explore them and run them during my workshop.
