In this Collective Learning Meeting (CLM), WPI System Dynamics hosts Urmila Mallick (urmila.mallick@yale.edu) who will present:

Transforming a Liability into an Asset:
A System Dynamics Model for Free-Ranging Dog Population Management

Short Description: This presentation will discuss a customizable system dynamics model that was developed to propose a novel intervention for Indian free-ranging dogs (FRD), a population that tends to resist conventional management strategies. We intend to improve our model to better subsume population dynamics, funding avenues, and innovative strategies to maintain FRD welfare, provide societal benefits, and compare intervention costs.

Questions for the Audience:

1) I am interested to know how time-lags can be improved in the model, especially when interventions are applied and the effects must pass through multiple modules.
2) How can we additionally include modules on human awareness and other non-numerical variables that change with FRD population management?
3) How can we improve, change, or add to the parameters in the model to make it more realistic for users?

Biography: Urmila Basu Mallick is a 2021 graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute with majors in Biology/Biotechnology and Environmental/Sustainability Studies and a minor in Social Entrepreneurship. She has been an REU student and visiting undergraduate affiliated with Harvard University since 2020, where her research in Dr. Colleen Cavanaugh’s lab involved metagenomics and metatranscriptomics of the human oral microbiome. She received the Women’s Young Investigator Fellowship to present her undergraduate research on Indian stray dog management, conducted under the guidance of Dr. Marja Bakermans and Dr. Khalid Saeed, at the 2020 Society for Conservation Biology- North American Congress. Urmila was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2021 and joined Yale University’s Masters in Environmental Science program at the School of the Environment this fall. She is currently studying the effects of wildlife and livestock on soil carbon storage in Botswana, under the guidance of Dr. Oswald Schmitz.

We will record this presentation and post to the WPI System Dynamics Club YouTube Channel.

Call-in Details: https://bit.ly/CLM-2021-11-19