System Dynamics Society Preparing International Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland

Albany, NY, April 17, 2018 (Newswire.com) - ​​​​​The 36^th Annual International Conference of the System Dynamics Society will be held August 6-10, 2018 at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik. 

Overview
As System Dynamics moves into its seventh decade, improved understanding of the world around us has never been more important. This need resonates across disciplines and from pre-college to academia to business and government. It calls for us to consider impacts of accumulation, feedback, and time delays while systematically evaluating policies for sustainable business practices, resource use, education, health care, and prosperity. We invite seasoned practitioners to share their important contributions to the field. We also invite those new to System Dynamics to learn about the powerful analytical techniques and insights developed over six decades of accomplishments. Through showcased work in plenary, parallel and poster sessions, in skill building workshops, and in those ever-important side conversations, the System Dynamics Society welcomes interested individuals and groups to join the Society as its seeks to improve our understanding of the world around us.

From saving the planet to animal husbandry, our northernmost conference to date, promises to provide thought provoking presentations and the chance for conversations on both methodology and impact. Everyone who is interested in the dynamic issues facing the modern world should make an effort to attend.

Dr. Bob Eberlein, ISDC 2018 Program Chair

“The International Conference is the annual premier event of the System Dynamics Society. This event brings together colleagues, students, and friends from across the world to share ideas and to learn about the latest developments in our field,” states System Dynamics Society President Dr. Ignacio Martinez-Moyano. “The Conference provides an unmatched opportunity to connect with people that care deeply about System Dynamics and its use to solve the world’s most pressing problems. I invite all System Dynamicists to join us this summer in Reykjavik, Iceland for what will be a remarkable conference.”    

Who should attend the conference?

·  Academics: Communicate your research results and find out about research being conducted around the world.

·  Consultants: Demonstrate the power of System Dynamics in client work and see what others are doing.

·  Practitioners: Show what is being done in your organization and learn what is happening elsewhere.

·  Students: Share your research, get feedback, and discover research directions and collaborators.

·  Educators: Let people know what you are doing and see what is being done with students at all levels.

·  Managers and Policy Makers: Discover new directions for your organization.

Conference Program Chair Dr. Bob Eberlein states: “From saving the planet to animal husbandry, our northernmost conference to date, promises to provide thought provoking presentations and the chance for conversations on both methodology and impact. Everyone who is interested in the dynamic issues facing the modern world should make an effort to attend.”  

Why Attend?

·  Network with hundreds of other students, academics, consultants and professionals involved in System Dynamics.

·  Receive current updates on a range of topics, from leaders and expert practitioners.

·  Learn about the particular benefits and uses of different modeling approaches.

·  Meet the sponsors and exhibitors and learn about their new developments.

·  Progress your career or search for job candidates at the Red Ribbon Event.

·  Learn about the latest work and research and see its implications for you.

·  Enhance your skill set with workshops and see the work of luminaries.

·  Explore and debate topics, discuss in formal and informal settings.

·  Present your research, project, or product and get feedback.

·  Promote your work.

Executive Director Roberta Spencer offers some insight on the timeliness and importance of this international conference: “The goodwill at our conference has always been impressive. For me, the Society is like a mini United Nations. I have seen attendees from every continent and multiple nationalities standing in groups at a coffee break speaking a common language. There is a powerful sense of diversity and cooperation present. We are an international community, open and diverse, with shared values and a framework for looking at the world.”

Conference organizers seek to engage Icelandic educators and the public as part of the conference proceedings.

System Dynamics Experts to Bring Systems Simulation Modeling to Icelandic Pre-College Educators and Parents at International Conference

The ice is melting. New treatments for kidney disease are improving quality of life. Tensions are building up in the Middle East and in North Korea. Potable water is becoming scarce in parts of Africa.  The opioid epidemic is a serious problem in the United States. These are just of few of the systemic problems facing people globally. For more than 20 years, secondary school students in parts of the United States, Norway, Netherlands, China, Japan, and other locations around the world have been building simulation models to study these complex, systemic problems. Elementary school students have been using systems thinking tools to learn to look at systemic problems more holistically as part of a preschool to grade 12 continuum to learn to think differently about how the world works. 

Internationally recognized and award-winning educators who have taught both secondary school students to build simulation models of systemic problems and who have worked with primary school students using systems thinking activities will be attending the International Conference of the System Dynamics Society in Reykjavík in August 2018. Educators throughout Iceland are invited to learn more, gain knowledge and increase professional skills about these cutting-edge strategies, techniques, and learning approaches. Educators will be especially pleased to learn how systems concepts can be easily incorporated and used in all classrooms, including science, mathematics, social science, health, and economics classes. 

At the conference, a special set of systems thinking and System Dynamics (simulation) modeling presentations and workshops will be open to interested pre-college educators. Student Modeling Coordinator Diana Fisher knows the impact of System Dynamics on students: “I have observed from over 20 years of having secondary school students build System Dynamics models: “Watching students build models to study many dynamic systems problems will make you a believer in this SD modeling approach. Their models and explanations are evidence of thinking that is at levels beyond their grade in school.”

Young people respond to System Dynamics. After creating his original System Dynamics model, a 17-year old high school student shared: “Where other classes ask me to memorize, this one dares me to explore.” Another student told his physics teacher who integrated System Dynamics into her teaching: “Your class helped me develop not only a knowledge of physics, but an understanding and indeed an intuition [for physics].”

A science teacher, who recently learned about the many different System Dynamics models that students can build in science classes, said: “I wish I could have learned all of my science this way.”

It is this excitement that the System Dynamics Society seeks to bring to Icelandic pre-college educators at Education Day. The Society has posted an informational flyer for teachers, entitled  “Help Your Students (Ages 4 to 18+) Understand the Dynamic Behavior of Systems,” which can be found at: https://sds.memberclicks.net/assets/Advertisement%20Flyer_Pre-College%20Educators_Reykjavi%CC%81k%20Conference.pdf.

For more information about Education Day at the 36^th Annual International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, please go to: https://www.systemdynamics.org/education-day

or contact Student Modeling Coordinator Diana Fisher at: [email protected]. 

Conference Plenary Session Open to the Public

New this year at the Reykjavík Conference is a plenary session open to the public. The open session was designed to draw people from the university and city to see important work being done in System Dynamics. This will provide an opportunity to reach directly to the broader public and build interest in our field. The open plenary is scheduled for Wednesday, August 8, 2018, with esteemed presenters Jorgen Randers and Peter Senge. 

Jorgen Randers to present: Lessons from seven attempts at "saving the world"

Jorgen Randers is one of the original authors of the famous book The Limits to Growth, published in 1972 when he was only 27 years old. At the time, he felt there was a clear, easily communicated, and actionable message. Yet nothing changed. In the intervening years he has altered the message and the way it was delivered to really get through to people. Each attempt at getting the key message across has been different, and the seventh is the culmination of the learning from all previous attempts.

Peter Senge to present: Systems thinking and collective learning: Reflections from three decades in the field

Today we stand at a cultural crossroad. Institutional inertia pushes us toward preservation and extension of industrial-age techno-centric norms and aims. Yet, the imperative for deep change becomes more and more self-evident as societal and ecological breakdowns spread. Amidst the chaos, a renaissance is quietly unfolding, evident in changes as diverse as social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs eschewing profit as the prime business driver, isolated collaborations successfully generating systems change, and especially a renewed focus on cultivating mindfulness, compassion, and social and ecological connectedness in education. 

For our collective future, we need to call into question the widely-shared, and largely implicit, norms and taken-for-granted assumptions guiding modern societies. The work, paradoxically, is deeply personal (individuals challenging their own worldviews) and at the same time inherently collective. This is where the System Dynamics worldview can find a place in the emerging renaissance, by helping to translate powerful yet still largely inchoate urges into more disciplined learning and change processes.

For a tentative schedule of the Plenary Sessions and the entire conference, please go to: https://sds.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/tentsched.pdf

Headquarters for the Conference: The Icelandic System Dynamics Center (ISDC)

Icelandic Local Organizing Chairs Dr. Harald Sverdrup and Dr. Anna Hulda Ólafsdóttir are excited that colleagues and supporters from across the world are coming to their island nation.  “We are very excited at the Icelandic System Dynamic Center that the conference comes to our home in Iceland, said Sverdrup, “We are at present changing the education in Industrial Engineering to have systems thinking pervasive thought throughout the whole program, using systems modelling to integrate theory, practice and industrial management. We work on the small scale and the large scale, and System Dynamics is an important method for connecting the scales. Having this conference in Iceland is a huge motivational boost for us.” Ólafsdóttir adds “We are over the moon excited to have all of our colleagues and fellow System Dynamics enthusiasts finally coming together in my home country, Iceland. We look forward to welcoming all conference attendees.”   

The Icelandic System Dynamics Center was established at the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Iceland, Reykjavík in 2014. The Icelandic System Dynamics Center was founded by and is headed by the Professor of Industrial Engineering, Dr. Harald Sverdrup. Sverdrup comes from 6 years as a corporate President, CEO and innovator in Norwegian industry, and 25 years as a Professor in Chemical Engineering at Lund University, Sweden, and 5 years as an innovator and consultant in North America. Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering,  Dr. Anna Hulda Ólafsdóttir is a key researcher at the Icelandic System Dynamics Center (ISDC) with special competence in supply chains, quality management systems and natural resource supply. Dr. Anna Ólafsdóttir competes at European- and World- level in weightlifting and Crossfit and is a positive role model for Icelandic youth. The Icelandic System Dynamics Center has at present one PhD student in food supply System Dynamics (Ingunn Ýr Guðbrandsdóttir).

The staff teaches about 20 master students every year from the different faculties at the University of Iceland. The Icelandic System Dynamics Center practices the Nordic variant of Systems Analysis and System Dynamics. The Icelandic System Dynamics Center is the main systems thinking supplier for the University and serve trans-disciplinary systems thinking for all faculties of the University.

The Icelandic System Dynamics Center has the responsibility for systems thinking, systems analysis and System Dynamics teaching at University of Iceland. The System Dynamics teaching provided by the Icelandic System Dynamics Center is a cornerstone course in the degrees of Industrial, Mechanical and Computer Engineering. The Icelandic System Dynamics Center is already active in modelling industrial ecology, ecology and environment, sustainability issues, and develop complex models for society, complex systemic illnesses, national economies and industrial systems. The Icelandic System Dynamics Center is involved in several EU projects; VALUMICS in the H2020 programme and the Marie Curie Programme project AdaptEconII, as well as projects with the German Government; SIMRESS.

The System Dynamics Society welcomes all to learn more about its work and all that its 36^th Annual International Conference offers. “Our conference attendees strive to make a difference. The conference provides a venue where big ideas are shared and deeply thought about. Researchers join forces, across disciplines, to present and demonstrate encouraging progress on challenges that confront all of us. We look toward positive results in the future,“ states Executive Director Roberta Spencer.

For further information about the System Dynamics Society, please go to: https://www.systemdynamics.org/

For further information about the 36^th Annual International Conference of the System Dynamics Society and all its offerings, please go to: https://www.systemdynamics.org/conference

Source: System Dynamics Society