Storymodelers

Storymodelers team members' spotlight We’re excited to highlight Rafael Angel Martinez Montero, an exceptional undergraduate student in systems engineering at Universidad del Norte who joined Storymodelers in January 2024. Since then, Rafael has been a key contributor to our team, applying his computer science expertise to develop innovative software solutions that facilitate statistical analysis of survey data. His dedication to improving our processes, combined with his technical knowledge, has already made a significant impact, and we can’t wait to see where his talents take him next. Keep up the fantastic work, Rafael! For more info, check the link below: https://lnkd.in/ed52YDvc #storymodelers #Colombia #Graduated #System engineering #Simulation

?? How do people form mixed opinions about #migration? Recent research from The #Storymodelers explores this issue, analyzing public attitudes toward migration in #Colombia ????. In our latest blog post, Daniel Bolívar Pimiento, the study found that many people balance compassion and concern—supporting migrants while also worrying about economic strain. Using Latent Class Analysis (LCA), the team identified three key groups: ?? Supporters with Economic Concerns – Those who trust migrants but worry about economic impacts. ?? Indifferent or Neutral Individuals – Those with no strong stance on migration. ?? Opponents with Positive Connections – Those generally opposed but who have had meaningful interactions with migrants. This research underscores the nuance of human attitudes and the importance of #dataDrivenInsights in shaping migration policy. Understanding these perspectives can help create policies that address real concerns while fostering social cohesion. ?? Read the full study here: https://lnkd.in/e7j6jzpA #MigrationPolicy #LatentClassAnalysis #SocialSciences

Storymodelers welcome Jeffrey Bobrow, Technical Director of the Spectrum Advanced Technology and Training Laboratory (SATTL) and Rafi Soule, PMP, CSM, ITIL. SATTL, currently in the setup phase at ODU Virginia Modeling, Analysis, & Simulation Center (VMASC), visited our lab to discuss collaboration opportunities across #ModelingAndSimulation, #MissionEngineering, #AI, and #ElectromagneticSpectrum management. Center for Mission Engineering, Old Dominion University, #Collaboration, #Education, #Research

Storymodelers welcome Jeffrey Bobrow, Technical Director of the Spectrum Advanced Technology and Training Laboratory (SATTL) and Rafi Soule, PMP, CSM, ITIL. SATTL, currently in the setup phase at ODU Virginia Modeling, Analysis, & Simulation Center (VMASC), visited our lab to discuss collaboration opportunities across #ModelingAndSimulation, #MissionEngineering, #AI, and #ElectromagneticSpectrum management. Center for Mission Engineering, Old Dominion University, #Collaboration, #Education, #Research

?? How do people form mixed opinions about #migration? Recent research from The #Storymodelers explores this issue, analyzing public attitudes toward migration in #Colombia ????. In our latest blog post, Daniel Bolívar Pimiento, the study found that many people balance compassion and concern—supporting migrants while also worrying about economic strain. Using Latent Class Analysis (LCA), the team identified three key groups: ?? Supporters with Economic Concerns – Those who trust migrants but worry about economic impacts. ?? Indifferent or Neutral Individuals – Those with no strong stance on migration. ?? Opponents with Positive Connections – Those generally opposed but who have had meaningful interactions with migrants. This research underscores the nuance of human attitudes and the importance of #dataDrivenInsights in shaping migration policy. Understanding these perspectives can help create policies that address real concerns while fostering social cohesion. ?? Read the full study here: https://lnkd.in/e7j6jzpA #MigrationPolicy #LatentClassAnalysis #SocialSciences

Exciting news! ?? Our conference paper is now available to read! ??? In this research, we explored how to improve GPT-3.5’s ability to generate interface and procedural code elements for NetLogo, a powerful multi-agent programming language and modeling environment. By leveraging few-shot prompting and RAG, we uncovered fascinating insights about the potential (and limitations) of LLMs in supporting ABMs. ?? Key takeaways: ? Few-shot prompting significantly enhanced GPT-3.5’s proficiency in generating NetLogo elements. ? RAG, while promising, faced challenges we analyzed in-depth, opening doors for future improvements in simulation development. ? This study demonstrates the value of LLMs in developing ABMs and teaching simulation concepts. A huge thank you to Brian Llinás, Jhon G. Botello, Erika Frydenlund, and Jose J. Padilla from Storymodelers lab ?? Our collaboration made this work possible. You can read the full paper below! ?? Let’s keep the conversation going! I’m eager to connect with others working at the intersection of AI, simulation, and modeling. ?? #AI #Simulation #NetLogo #AgentBasedModeling #Research #Collaboration #WinterSim2024

Connecting the Dots: The Tale Behind Our Website’s Portrait Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the map on our website tells a deeper story—one of human connections and global collaboration. Each dot and line represents the collective effort of individuals and institutions working together to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. At The Storymodelers, we believe in turning data into meaningful narratives and offering actionable insights for real-world problems. Our work spans continents, bridging local expertise with global challenges, particularly in areas like resilience and forced migration. The Storymodelers, rooted in Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA, USA) and Universidad del Norte (Barranquilla, Colombia), foster interdisciplinary collaborations that transcend borders, proving that when we connect the dots, we create solutions that matter. Join us on this journey of storytelling, research, and impact. Find below a blog that lays out more about our reach. Thank you for your interest in us. https://lnkd.in/eVHBDmVJ #TheStorymodelers #GlobalCollaboration #Research #Resilience #ForcedMigration

?? Excited to share a follow-up to my blog series:?"From Narrative to Conceptualization: The Role of Large Language Models in Modeling & Simulation"???? I would like to share part of my Ph.D research. This blog— explores the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) to transition from narrative analysis to conceptual modeling and simulation. The discussion focuses on the characterization of?actors, factors, and mechanisms, emphasizing their role in structuring narratives into meaningful conceptual models. ???? The blog also discusses the potential of LLMs across various domains—based on state-of-the-art— like cybersecurity, scientific research, mathematics, and education, while addressing the limitations and ethical considerations tied to their use. ???? At?Storymodelers, we aim to contribute to the field of Modeling & Simulation (M&S) by leveraging LLMs to transform narratives into conceptual models, enabling the rapid development of simulations for deeper exploration and decision-making. ???? ?? Read the full blog post here:? ?? https://lnkd.in/dwU4Pm4i ?? For those interested in replicating or extending this research, check out the accompanying code and data:? ?? https://lnkd.in/dpMzSXEu #NLP #AI #MachineLearning #LLM #ConceptualModeling #Simulation #Innovation

?? Excited to share my latest blog post:?"Do Large Language Models Agree on Entity Extraction?"???? At?Storymodelers, we're delving into how LLMs can automate narrative-driven processes like analyzing news articles ????. We aim to streamline qualitative analysis and efficiently extract meaningful insights from text narratives. ???? This blog explores the variations in named entity recognition (NER) outputs across different large language models (LLMs) and introduces methods, such as cosine similarity and Sentence-BERT, to align these discrepancies. ???? This blog highlights one of the many exciting initiatives we’re pursuing at Storymodelers—a starting point for deeper exploration into using LLMs to unlock valuable insights from textual data. ???? ?? Read the full blog post here: ???https://lnkd.in/ezpQMjhW ?? For those interested in replicating this experiment, you can find the accompanying code and data in the GitHub repository: ???https://lnkd.in/eWBzzsez #NLP #AI #MachineLearning #EntityExtraction #LLM

Reflecting on 2024 with The Storymodelers Often we forget to celebrate?our wins—big and small—and?make little?how hard?we worked to make them happen. As we step into 2025,?The?Storymodelers is reflecting on some of the incredible achievements from the past year that have propelled our work forward. Here are just a few highlights from 2024 ? ??Securing Major Grants:?Storymodelers and their collaborators around the world were awarded two prestigious Minerva?Research Initiative grants totaling?over $3?million! These projects focus on exciting basic social science research topics: ?? UN-RESILIENCE:?Harnessing Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) to study societal collapse and resilience worldwide. ?? BEYOND THE Clock:?Investigating?how cultural conceptions of time influence military strategy through innovative arts-based methodologies.? See for more information about the grants and our research.?https://shorturl.at/BSvoh ? ??Student Success: ?? Mel Miller-Felton conducted fieldwork in a Cape Town township for the Minerva Research Initiative project, "What's Missing? Innovating Interdisciplinary Methods for Hard-to-Reach Environments," funded by AFOSR. She gathered photo and narrative data on women's safety and resilience in South Africa.?https://shorturl.at/0nTuI ?? Jhon Botello was invited to Paris, France, to present at the “Digital Methods for the Study of Mobilities” workshop, held June 25-26, 2024, at INALCO in Paris, France. https://shorturl.at/dOZux ?? Joseph Martinez, a pioneering Storymodelers research assistant, earned his M.S. in modeling and simulation from ODU's ECE department. ??New Storymodelers: ?? Lawrence Obiuwevwi joined the Storymodelers in the spring of 2024 as a PhD student in?Computer Science at ODU. ?? We hosted two NSF REU interns in Computer Science at ODU to study dis- and misinformation. Jessica Melton will continue with us into 2025. ?? Rafael Martínez, Valencia Estor, Daniela Nu?ez, and Alexander Rangel at Uninorte,?Colombia, joined the team in 2024 ??Presentations & Publications:?(asterisks mark student co-authors) ?? Martínez, Joseph, Brian Llinas*, Jhon G. Botello*, Jose J. Padilla, and Erika Frydenlund. (December 15–18, 2024). “Enhancing GPT-3.5’s Proficiency in NetLogo Through Few-Shot Prompting and Retrieval-Augmented Generation.” Proceedings of the 2024 Winter Simulation Conference. Orlando, Florida. ?? Frydenlund, Erika, Joseph Martínez*, Jose J. Padilla, Katherine Palacio, and David Shuttleworth*. (2024). “Modeler in a Box: How Can Large Language Models Aid in the Simulation Modeling Process?” SIMULATION. 2024;0(0).?https://shorturl.at/l3JDF ?? Rechowicz, K.J., Irwin T. (2024), “Enhancing Defense Manufacturing Readiness: A Mission Engineering Approa "Presented at the 2024 Defense Manufacturing Conference, December 2-5, 2024, Austin, TX. For more information, read the blog: https://lnkd.in/eKZ-qUfV. We look forward to our international team's impact in 2025—Go Storymodelers!!!??