UK Chapter of the System Dynamics Society

There were five full paper entries for the student prize, covering a range of system dynamics applications in business, the environment and the housing market.

The papers were assessed on four criteria: dynamic problem formulation, justified use of the system dynamics methodology, model results and implementation, and contribution to knowledge.

Three features of Oluwasegun Aluko’s work stood out. Firstly, the range of policy changes that gave insight into how the driver behaviour could be improved. Secondly, the data extraction methods used. Semi-structured interviews with drivers were used in model construction and calibration. Thirdly, the potential transferability of the model to other forms of commercial taxi services across many developing countries where the operational issues are similar.    

Professor Simon Shepherd, who chaired the conference, ended his term as president of the UK Chapter of the System Dynamics Society. The conference attracted more than 50 participants and included a range of talks, including contributions from Steve Brewis (Chief research Scientist from BT) talking about how to manage the network, Stephen Curram (DAS) talking about work supporting the US department of defence, Simon Roberts (Arup) and Colin Axon (Brunel) talking about modelling the whole economy and Kim Warren discussing model based problem prevention strategies.  The conference was opened by Simon’s former PhD Student, Gillian Harrison who gave a talk about her work for the EU Joint Research Centre on their new Powertrain Technology Transition Market Agent model.

For more information and slides see http://systemdynamics.org.uk/annual-gathering/