Making Connections

Joanne Egner News & Announcements

In 2009, the isee systems blog, “Making Connections” was created as a forum for sharing ideas and experiences with the Systems Thinking community. Blog topics cover subjects ranging from a systems perspective of current news events to modeling tips for advanced STELLA and iThink users.

As the first anniversary of the isee Blog approaches, we thought it would be interesting for folks to see the list of our most popular blog posts.

Top Ten Posts of 2009

1. Modeling H1N1 Flu Outbreak
2. Modeling Customers Switching Between Brands
3. Modeling a Watershed with Arrays
4. Matrix Arithmetic
5. Spatial Modeling with isee Spatial Map
6. “Thinking in Systems” book inspires online course
7. Physics Textbook 2.0
8. Insight-based Model Investigates the Housing Crisis
9. Building a Health Care Model Hierarchically
10. C02 in the Atmosphere Behaves Like a Bathtub

Jeremy Merritt News & Announcements

Last Friday we hosted the first of a four-part web seminar series titled Modeling for Environmental Sustainability.  This first session was about how you can use simple bathtub dynamics to understand climate change.

In the session, Chris Soderquist demonstrates how you can use embeddable simulations to help raise awareness and understanding about climate change.  Using simple bathtub dynamics, the “C02 Dynamic Indicator” simulation lets anyone experiment with the current set of policy proposals for capping and reducing emissions.

The live session was recorded and is now posted on our website, along with two embedded simulations that you can run online.  All of the session materials are open source and we encourage you to link, embed and share them with others.

c02, Climate Change, netsim, policy, webinar

Joanne Egner News & Announcements

Marcus Robinson & James Ranney accept 2009 Barry Richmond Scholarship Award

The Barry Richmond Scholarship Award was established in 2007 by isee systems to honor and continue the legacy of our founder, Barry Richmond.  Barry was devoted to helping others become better “Systems Citizens”.  It was his mission to make Systems Thinking and System Dynamics accessible to people of all ages and in all fields.

The award is presented annually at the International System Dynamics Conference to an individual whose work demonstrates a desire to expand the field or to apply it to current social issues.

Barry had a particular passion for expanding the field into K-12 education.  He worked closely with teachers and young people at all levels to incorporate Systems Thinking tools and methodologies into the classroom.  With this in mind, it was a great pleasure to present this year’s award to Marcus Robinson and James Ranney, two students from Wilson High School in Portland, Oregon.

Marcus Robinson presents at SD Conference

The scholarship committee was very impressed by the quality of the models and technical papers that these students submitted.   Both high school seniors were enrolled in Diana Fisher’s modeling class this past year.  For their final project assignment, they were asked to explore a topic of their own choosing.

Inspired by a video of the PBS NOVA program “Dimming the Sun”, Marcus chose to create a model that would help to answer the question “How Much do Carbon Emissions Need to be Reduced in Order to Stop Global Warming?” To download Marcus’ paper, click here.

After a run-in with a large frog at his summer camp, James was interested in answering “What is the Impact of Introducing an Invasive Species into an Ecosystem?” – in this case, the bullfrog into the Pacific Northwest. To download James’ paper, click here.

James Ranney presents during K-12 poster session

Both students presented their work at a parallel session during the conference and again at a special K-12 poster session.  What a delight it was to see how empowering modeling real-world issues is for young people and the enthusiasm they share for their work.

Thank you to the society for making a special effort to serve the K-12 community and provide opportunities for partnership.  Congratulations Marcus and James, Barry would be very proud!

Applications for the 2010 Barry Richmond Scholarship Award will be available on the isee systems and System Dynamics Society web sites. Check those sites for more information.

Barry Richmond, conferences, scholarship, System Dynamics Society

Joanne Egner News & Announcements

We’re looking forward to connecting with folks at the 27th Annual International System Dynamics Conference in Albuquerque next week.   Karim Chichakly, Jeremy Merritt and I will be there to share the latest news, listen to your stories, and answer any questions you might have.

We hope to see you at as many of the following isee sponsored events as your schedule allows:

Monday, July 27th

Tuesday, July 28th

Wednesday, July 29th

Thursday, July 30th

See you in Albuquerque!

conferences, workshop

Jeremy Merritt News & Announcements

Facebook is all the rage these days, so we have setup a few Pages so you can access this blog and create some conversations there as well.  So, if you use Facebook and want to become a fan, head over to the Pages!

• isee systems Facebook Page
• STELLA Facebook Page
• iThink Facebook Page

(If Twitter is more of your thing you can follow me at http://twitter.com/jeremyx)

facebook, twitter

Joanne Egner News & Announcements

Karim & Rob listening to customers at User Conference Lab

We’ve been working hard these past few months preparing for the latest release of STELLA and iThink and are happy to finally share it with everyone.  Version 9.1.2 is now available!

As an update to STELLA and iThink, you could easily be fooled into thinking that it is made up of just a few minor bug fixes.  To the contrary, this release is full of new features and enhancements that make it much more exciting than its version number suggests.

After receiving wonderful feedback at our User Conference last October, our development team was motivated to incorporate as many suggestions as they could into this particular update. Better yet, version 9.1.2 is a FREE update for anyone who has purchased a software license or an Annual Support Contract within the last 12 months.

A series of in-depth posts about specific features in 9.1.2 already exist and we’ll be adding more in response to your comments in the coming weeks. In addition to providing new functionality, we worked with beta testers on eliminating performance bottlenecks especially with larger models spanning multiple modules.

Version 9.1.2 shows impressive performance. This is a significant step in productivity! — Albert Mauritius, Beta Tester

Check out the complete list of what’s new in version 9.1.2 on our web site or download your copy now.

iThink/STELLA, user conference, Version 9.1.2

Joanne Egner News & Announcements

Welcome to the isee systems blog, “Making Connections”.  We hope you find it a practical resource for learning more about Systems Thinking, applying it to real-world situations, and using our software and training materials.

While we don’t have a set schedule, we post to the blog often. You can automatically get the updates by subscribing  via email  or using a news reader such as Google Reader, NewsGator or FeedDemon.

Most importantly, we want to hear from you. Please give us your feedback, post your comments, and keep us in the loop on what you’re doing and thinking!

Jeremy Merritt News & Announcements

I will be presenting a session along with Mark Clemente next week (February 23rd, 2009) at the VSTE 2009 Conference.  The session is called “Practical Applications of Systems Dynamics and STELLA in the High School Setting“.  If you are attending the conference, you can come by Meeting Suite 5A on Monday at 8:30AM to check out the presentation.  We’ll be camped out in the suite for the day chatting with folks and demonstrating STELLA as well.

Last September, Joanne and I attended the Modsim 2008 Conference in Virginia Beach and met Mark.  Mark is a high school chemistry teacher and is currently an Educator-in-Residence at the National Institute of Aerospace.  He is a big part of the Hampton Roads Modeling and Simulation Initiative, which is a group of folks from the education system, government, local businesses and industry that are promoting the use of Modeling and Simulation to create a workforce for the 21st Century.

We’ve been happy to support Mark and the MODSIM initiative this year in their use of STELLA in High School. The presentation will cover how Systems Thinking, STELLA and dynamic modeling can be applied to High School curriculum.  We’ll be handing out a CD with tons of sample models, cirriculum and a 30-day workshop version of STELLA

conferences, Education