Abstract for: Getting Started with Ventity - Model Reuse with Ad Hoc Data

This is a hands-on introduction to Ventity, a platform for system dynamics modeling that supports detailed and object oriented modeling while preserving attractive features of existing tools, including a completely declarative language with a graphical representation. We will introduce the software and new concepts, including collections of entities, attributes, relationships, aggregation and allocation functions, and actions. Features facilitate modularity and collaboration, provide a more natural description of detail than arrays, and solve sparse matrix problems. It has application to both traditional system dynamics, with modular sectors, and to agent based modeling. As an example, we will focus on project modeling, with use of ad hoc data to initialize diverse projects from a generic model.