Work in progress — Developing educational opportunities in agent-based modeling

This paper outlines opportunities for student work in agent-based modeling, with reference to applications to community-level epidemic modeling, modeling patient waiting times in a hospital emergency departments, and modeling the spread of infection within a hospital. The applications demonstrate the educational opportunities inherent in agent-based modeling, which can address the educational and professional context calling graduate engineers to have a wider range of professional skills, including communication, teamwork, self-management, creativity, and awareness. Agent-based modeling applications lend themselves naturally to interdisciplinary exposure and professional skill development. Agent-based modeling is also supported by concepts in teaching and learning theory.