Yesterday I attended another of the Skills development Courses I am expected to attend (and no, I have enough to cover this year…but when i see something interesting I still like to attend). It was another course from the Interdisciplinary Studies of Evidence series of which I attended one last year. This time, the course, presented by Emma Byrne, was about Computational modelling: man-made evidence.
I attended this course as I am and will be using computer modelling in my work. Computer Modelling is essential in a number of fields, including prediction of data based on a dataset you already have, as well as to be able to build models to mimic a process you are investigating. In the course these different aspects of a computer model were presented, I must say in a very entertaining, though useful and exact manner. We were also given some time to discuss our ideas of what computer models may be and what are the reasons for their use, as well as to discuss what makes a ‘good model’ (if there ever is such a thing).
All in all a very enlightening, interesting and stimulating course, what with a mix of theory, case studies and discussion in just the right amounts. I was impressed! I must say this is probably one of the better courses I’ve attended as part of the graduate school courses. It was a last minute decision to attend, but I definitely do not regret it!
The Effect of New Behaviour
Filed under: Events and Activities, computer modelling, Emma Byrne, evidence, graduate school courses, interdisciplinary studies of evidence, skills development courses
My Path Through Research 
[…] Interdisciplinary Studies of Evidence is one of many courses offered through the UCL graduate school skills development programme. I have so far been to three of the sessions in the series, on being a general session on interdisciplinarity, and the other two on evidence in statistics and computer modelling. […]