Held prior to the Conference, the Summer School provides a unique opportunity for Society members to learn and review the basics of System Dynamics and get exposed to real-world applications of the method. It offers you the chance to build your own simulation model with the support of some of the best instructors in the field. Seats are limited. Register by June 10th, 2023! 

For those with none or very limited System Dynamics knowledge

A Membership in the System Dynamics Society is required to register. Get a Membership

The Summer School is an online event.

The Introductory Track is software neutral. The purpose is to teach the System Dynamics methodology and not specific software syntax. There will be models available in Vensim, Studio, and Stella. Free versions of modeling software that are limited in capability or limited in duration of use will be available.

Instructors:
David Ford, Virginia Tech
Birgit Kopainsky, University of Bergen
Rod MacDonald, James Madison University
Oleg Pavlov, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Participants in the Introductory Summer School may attend online classes held at times that are convenient for European or American time zones. The European Introductory Track will be led by Birgit Kopainsky and Rod MacDonald, and the American Introductory Track will be led by David Ford and Oleg Pavlov. Both tracks will cover the same material. Each track will convene three times per day for 90-minute sessions. Participants are expected to attend all three sessions. The online classes will be held from Monday (July 10) to Thursday (July 13) at the following times:

It is important that you complete your pre-work, and watch recordings and tutorials prior to the week of synchronous class sessions. This preparatory work will help you get exposure to modeling software and systems thinking. By completing the pre-work on time, you won’t fall behind during class sessions. The week of class sessions is dedicated to the discussion of topics and assignments with instructors.

We don’t expect students to learn or master the material from the videos alone or before the week of Summer School. Instead, we expect students to have watched the videos in order to become familiar with the content so that we can draw on the content during the live sessions, you can ask questions, and when we refer back to the videos, have a sense of what we are talking about. Based on previous years, if you fail to complete your pre-work, you’ll likely be falling behind and have a less satisfying experience.

There are approximately 9 hours of pre-recorded lectures to watch before the week of Summer School (not including software and System Dynamics applications videos). Adding 12 synchronous class sessions totals 20 hours of interacting online plus at least 20 hours offline to work on problems/exercises and your individual project.