From microgrids and urban farms to electronic markets and mobility on demand systems, information technology allows users of connected systems to share, exchange and use resources in more sustainable ways. Yet, understanding how such ecosystems function and perform requires ability to simulate their behavior through models and use the models to pose questions and explore scenarios. The course ARC304 is a continuation of ARC303. It approaches sustainability in social systems as a macroscopic outcome of individual interactions focusing on issues of smart cities, mobility on demand systems, human-machine ecologies, self-organization and commons. Classes will combine discussions with students, lectures, demonstrations with computer simulations and occasionally guest lectures. Each class will focus on a theme, spending the first half on a discussion on the readings and the next half on a lecture or simulation demo on the topic. The discussion will be organized and based on short critical positions on the readings from each team that will be posted as blog entries in the course website the day before each class meeting from each team.

Topics

• Connected, sustainable cities
• Computational sustainability
• Human-machine ecosystems
• Landscape automation and robotic farming
• Hyperloop and mobility on demand systems
• Individuals, crowds and self-organization
• Commons and sharing
• Agent based simulations
• Markets and social networks