The NetLogo Center hosted its first user conference June 29th - July 1st, 2026 in Chicago! The conference brought together 130 researchers and educators to learn and expand agent-based modeling skills and share experiences using NetLogo. This page features the schedule of events, recordings of our keynote speeches, workshop materials, and photos from the event.

Events

The schedule for the conference can be viewed here (tabs at the bottom for the three days and full speaker list). The conference featured is a combination of keynote speeches, interactive workshops, and research presentations.

Keynote speakers and industry panel

The conference featured three very exciting keynote speakers. Their talks were recorded and are now available on YouTube.

Professor Uri Wilensky, creator of NetLogo. View recording here.

Professor Josh Epstein, founding Director of the NYU Agent-Based Modeling Laboratory. View recording here.

Professor Moira Zellner, Director of Participatory Modeling and Data Science, Northeastern University. View recording here.

The conference also included a panel discussion of leaders using agent-based modeling in industry featuring:

Dan Eichelsdoerfer, CEO of Macrocosm
John Cordier, CEO of Epistemix
Paolo Guadiano, CEO of Aleria
Stephen Guerin, of Simtable
View the recording of the industry panel here

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Workshops

Researchers and teachers can attend any workshops they want, but we've divided them by which audience we think they are most relevant to.

Researcher-focused workshops

Sensitivity Analysis of ABMs - Taught by Kristin Crouse. A sensitivity analysis examines how changes in model parameters affect model outcomes. Participants will learn practical skills for performing sensitivity analyses through hands-on activities. Topics include selecting appropriate parameter ranges, deciding how to sample the parameter space, applying local and global sensitivity approaches, measuring output qualitatively and quantitatively, and interpreting results to assess model behavior. View workshop materials here.

Getting Started with an Agent-based Model: Strategies for Making Crucial Design Decisions - Taught by Steve Railsback. Designing an agent-based model (ABM) that is “as simple as possible, but not simpler” is critical but challenging. Models that start out too complex often are never finished and always are difficult to analyze and understand; but too-simple models are uninteresting and unlikely to be useful. This workshop will present a set of strategies, centered around “pattern-oriented modeling,” for designing models that have the right entities and agents, variables, behaviors and mechanisms, and scales to be useful without excess complexity; and for providing a clear and reproducible basis for design decision. The workshop will combine lectures, demonstrations, and group exercises, using several examples from ecology and other fields. View workshop slides here. View additional resources from the workshop here.

Model Verification - Testing NetLogo Code - Taught by Jonathan Magnolia Gilligan. This workshop will introduce testing and model verification in NetLogo. Even the best programmers regularly make errors writing code, and rigorous testing for errors is an important part of software development and scientific computing. We will review categories of errors that you may encounter while designing and coding models, and testing methods for detecting errors and verifying that your model code does what you intend. Testing methods will include visual inspection of the model view and agent monitors; printing output to the Command Center; stress testing models to check how they perform with extreme parameter values; statistical analysis of model output; independent implementation of submodels; and unit testing. A large part of the workshop will focus on unit testing, in which each procedure, reporter, or submodel is tested for correct and consistent operation, and agents (turtles, patches, and links) are tested for internal consistency. We will then apply these methods to finding and fixing errors in an example model. View workshop slides here.

Spatial Agent-Based Modeling: A Hands-On Introduction to the NetLogo GIS Extension - taught by Amir Tofighi. In this 80-minute workshop, participants will learn how to connect static spatial data with dynamic agent-based modeling using NetLogo’s GIS extension. The session will begin with a practical demonstration of how real-world GIS datasets can be integrated into the NetLogo environment. Participants will then move into a guided hands-on activity where they will write code to load shapefiles, align coordinate systems, and program agents to interact with geographic boundaries. Whether you are simulating urban traffic patterns or modeling marine biology ecosystems, this workshop will provide foundational skills for bringing agent-based models beyond an abstract grid and into a more realistic spatial context. View workshop materials here.

From Beginner to Modeler: Teaching Agent-Based Modeling with NetLogo at the BEHAVE Summer School - taught by Francesco Renzini. This workshop presents how NetLogo is used to train the next generation of agent-based modelers at the BEHAVE Summer School. Organized by the BEHAVE Lab of the University of Milan, the school has been held annually in Brescia, Italy during the first two weeks of September for the past twelve years. The workshop details our approach: we do not simply teach a programming language, but foster the mindset and practices of a modeler. It draws on over a decade of teaching experience, sharing practical strategies for effective learning and addressing common challenges faced by early-career researchers. We also present recent developments enabling advanced Bayesian estimation of NetLogo models using PyABC and BayesFlow via PyNetLogo. View workshop materials here.

LLMs for agent cognition and evolution: Integrating Large Language Models into NetLogo - taught by Can Gurkan. In this workshop we will introduce participants to the integration of large language models (LLMs) within agent-based modeling using NetLogo. Attendees will be guided through a newly developed NetLogo LLM extension, which enables agents to leverage LLMs for adaptive, context-sensitive decision making. Through a series of interactive demo models, the session will illustrate how LLMs can be embedded into agent behaviors to produce more flexible and expressive dynamics. In addition, the workshop will demonstrate how LLMs can be used as generative tools to construct or evolve agent rules and agent code, thereby enabling the design of adaptive and interpretable rules of agent-based systems. The session is designed to be hands-on and accessible, requiring only familiarity with NetLogo. Participants will leave with practical knowledge and example models that can be directly applied to their own research and modeling workflows. View workshop materials here.

Writing NetLogo Extensions - taught by Jason Bertsche. NetLogo can be extended by writing extensions in Scala, Java, or another JVM language. Some of the most popular existing extensions include the network extension (nw), the random extension (rnd), and the GIS extension. This workshop will show how to get started with writing extensions if you want to extend NetLogo in other ways. View workshop slides and resources here.

Both research and teacher focused workshops

Using AI to help create and modify models Taught by John Chen. This hands-on workshop explores how large language models can assist researchers and educators in building and refining agent-based models in NetLogo. Participants need no prior AI experience or software installation: everything runs through a web-based interface. We'll begin with open experimentation, giving everyone time to try prompting AI to generate or modify NetLogo code, followed by a group discussion of what worked, what didn't, and what surprised us. We'll then share a set of curated prompting strategies ("skills") we've developed to improve the quality and reliability of AI-generated NetLogo models. Whether you're a researcher prototyping a new simulation or a teacher looking to quickly adapt classroom models, you'll leave with practical experiences for integrating AI into your NetLogo workflow. View workshop slides here.

Artful Computing: An Introduction to Teaching Generative Art using NetLogo - taught by Forrest Stonedahl. This hands-on workshop will include highlights from a college course on generative art that I have taught several times, and offer ideas for those who might be interested in teaching their own course (at the middle school, high school, or college level) or short workshop on art using the NetLogo platform. We will introduce the genre of "Generative Art" by first contextualizing it within art history through connections to Dadaism and Conceptualism, and explain the role of the artist and the machine as cocreators of the artwork. Next, we will quickly move on to exploring several examples of how NetLogo can be used as a tool for artistic expression and discovery. Using these tools, workshop participants will engage in hands-on activities and create their own 2-D and 3-D scenes and animations. Several handouts and example files are included, which you are free to reuse in your own classrooms. View workshop materials here.

Introduction to NetLogo programming This workshop will introduce NetLogo programming assuming no prior experience. By the end, participants will understand the basics of the NetLogo language and modeling environment and have constructed a simple model from scratch. We will share resources at the end for continued learning.

Teacher-focused workshops

Toward Critical Systems Literacy: A Workshop taught by Walter Stroup. Embracing the idea of working with teachers to support coding across the curricula (Wilensky, 2016) and framed in terms of a Paulo Freire's critique of deficit-driven, rote, controlling approaches to literacy, this workshop will begin with an "Introbuttons" activity for learning to code in NetLogo that centers on using "beauty" as a plausible instance of what Freire meant by a "generative word" (palavra geradora). Then, as a continuation of Freire's expressive sense of literacy embodying "an attitude of creation and re-creation, a self-transformation producing a stance of intervention in one's context," the workshop will draw on the capabilities developed through working with the Introbuttons activity to code and re-code models of segregation. A new, easy-for-educators-to-access, NSF-funded, NetLogo Web-based, "gallery"-mode prototype architecture for implementing interactive, group-situated learning and sharing will be used for the workshop. View a 3-minute video introducing the NetLogo-based, NSF-funded Group-based Cloud Computing for STEM Education capabilities here. View workshop materials here.

Curriculum Design and Patch Based Models to explore Computer Science Problem Solving in High School taught by Mike Zamansky. In 1998, Stuyvesant, a selective STEM public school in New York City designed a new Computer Science course. Rather than an advanced elective for self selecting pre-computer scientists, this course was designed for the entire student population and has since become a 10th grade requirement at the school. NetLogo was chosen as one of the implementation languages for a variety of reasons including its interactive nature, its strengths as a modelling environment, and its ability to foreshadow a number of advanced computer science concepts and techniques. In this workshop the creators of Stuyvesant required computer science course will discuss its design, development, and evolution. Participants will also walk through the design and development of two of the course’s more interesting units in the course. One where students use a NetLogo model to build a maze solver and one to perform image processing, including edge detection. View workshop slides here. View code and notes here.

Much.Matter.in.Motion — Learning Chemistry and Physics Through Constructing Models - taught by Sharona Levy. This hands-on workshop introduces participants to Much.Matter.in.Motion (MMM), an agent-based modeling platform designed to help middle and high school students construct computational models of complex physical and chemical systems. Built on NetLogo, MMM lowers the barrier to computational modeling by using a block-based programming environment and organizing model construction into three intuitive segments: properties, actions, and interactions of entities. This enables students to engage in scientific modeling without needing prior programming experience. Participants will explore how MMM's unified framework allows a single modeling structure to apply across diverse phenomena in chemistry and physics, such as gas behavior, diffusion, and electrical systems, helping students recognize deep conceptual connections across topics. Teachers will leave with practical strategies for integrating MMM into existing science curricula, supporting students in developing both conceptual understanding and systems thinking through the construction of computational models. View workshop materials, including two learning units, here.

Integrating Unplugged Activities with NetLogo Models in Science Education - taught by Amanda Peel. This hands-on workshop introduces teachers to practical strategies for integrating computational thinking into science classes by combining unplugged, computer-free activities with NetLogo agent-based models. Participants will explore how foundational algorithm concepts introduced offline can connect naturally to reading and interpreting computational models in science contexts. Teachers will leave with ready-to-use approaches for building students' CT skills without requiring writing code.

Modeling Pedagogy - taught by Sugat Dabholkar. This workshop will introduce the big ideas of model-based inquiry and modeling pedagogy and then show how those ideas can be embodied in specific lessons. This workshop will be more theoretical than most of the others, but will still contain practical take aways and will pair nicely with other workshops. View workshop materials here.

Exploring Subject-Specific Models This time will be open for teachers to explore NetLogo models related to the subject(s) they teach guided by NetLogo experts, and then brainstorm and plan how thee models could be used in their classrooms.

Research Presentations

The conference featured 45 research presentations and several poster presentations from researchers across the NetLogo community. Some presenters chose to share their slides/posters, which are featured below. A full list of talks can be found at this link.

A Conceptual Agent-Based Model of Dispatch Coordination in Volunteer-Based Food Rescue presented by Md Parvez Shaikh. View slides here.
Simulating Tradeoffs, Not Answers: NetLogo Models for Equity-Focused Decision Analysis presented by Charles Miller. View slides here. View poster here.
Web Application for Simulation of NetLogo3D Agent-based Model presented by Dr. Rachael Miller Neilan. View poster here.
A Study on the Analysis of Incident Report Transmission Processes within Organisations Using Agent-Based Simulation presented by Masuda Hiroyuki. View poster here.
Modeling Strategy-based Reading Comprehension Instruction presented by John McEneaney. View slides here.
Modeling Classroom Learning by John McEneaney. View poster here.