Preliminary Program - Monday, May 26th, 2026
Morning Session
| Time |
Event |
| 8:30 - 8:50 AM |
Arrival and Registration |
| 8:50 - 9:00 AM |
General Introduction Workshop Organizers |
| 9:00 - 10:00 AM |
‘Toward agent-based simulations of complex human societies’
Keynote Talk by Jacob Crandall, Brigham Young University |
Abstract:
Artificial intelligence (interpreted broadly) has the potential to help us improve human societies. Such improvements can come from understanding important (and interconnected) social phenomena and challenges, including poverty, loneliness, bullying, the rise and fall of institutions, and the prosperity and stability of nations. Understanding these and other phenomena and challenges of human societies requires us to learn and model how people and groups behave in complex systems. In this talk, I will present my research group’s (ongoing) work in modeling and understanding complex human societies through agent-based simulations. In so doing, I will detail our work in (1) developing models and abstractions designed to adequately capture the salient “social physics” of complex human societies, (2) encoding human behavior into agents that act in these societal models, and (3) observing the outputs of the resulting simulations. My talk will highlight both successes and challenges that we have experienced while conducting this research.
Bio:
Jacob received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2001, 2004, and 2006, respectively. From 2006 to 2008, he was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT). He then took a faculty position with the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a new (at the time) graduate-research university in Abu Dhabi, UAE formed in collaboration with MIT. Jacob returned to the BYU Computer Science Department as a faculty member in 2016. His research includes work in human-machine cooperation, multi-agent systems, agent-based simulations, artificial intelligence, and robotics. When not engrossed in research, Jacob enjoys spending time with his wife and four children.
Coffee Break
| Time |
Event |
| 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM |
Coffee Break |
First Presentation Block
Lunch
| Time |
Event |
| 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM |
Networking and Lunch |
2nd Presentation Block
Coffee Break
| Time |
Event |
| 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM |
Coffee Break |
3rd Presentation Block
| Time |
Presentation |
| 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM |
Panel Discussion |
| 5:00 PM - 5:10 PM |
Closing Remarks |