An Agent Based Model of a Child Care Facility

Speaker:  Darren Flynn-Primrose (Postdoctoral Fellow - UoG)

Abstract:  Unlike differential equation models, agent based models (ABM) are able to readily introduce heterogeneity into individual attributes and are tailored to reflect the emerging behaviour, at population level, resulting from the agent-to-agent and/or agent-to-environment interactions. In this lecture, we describe an ABM model of a child care center modelled after the Child Care and Learning Center (CCLC) at the University of Guelph,in Guelph, ON, Canada. We elaborate on the collection of empirical data as well as the statistical tools employed to analyze it. Additionally, we show preliminary results from or efforts to simulate the spread on infectious pathogens througout the CCLC. We conclude with a few remarks regarding future possibilities.