Designing Reliable Experiments with Generative Agent-Based Modeling: A Comprehensive Guide Using Concordia by Google DeepMind

In social sciences, researchers often face challenges when conducting large-scale experiments, particularly due to the simulations' complexity and the lack of technical expertise required to develop such frameworks. Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) is a computational approach that simulates agents' actions and interactions to evaluate how their behaviors influence the outcomes. However, the traditional implementation of ABM can be demanding and complex. Generative Agent-Based Modeling (GABM) offers a solution by enabling scholars to create simulations where AI-driven agents can generate complex behaviors based on underlying rules and interactions. This paper introduces a framework for designing reliable experiments using GABM, making sophisticated simulation techniques more accessible to researchers across various fields. We provide a step-by-step guide for selecting appropriate tools, designing the model, establishing experimentation protocols, and validating results.

A Comprehensive Guide to Combining R and Python code for Data Science, Machine Learning and Reinforcement Learning

Python has gained widespread popularity in the fields of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data engineering due to its effectiveness and extensive libraries. R, on its side, remains a dominant language for statistical analysis and visualization. However, certain libraries have become outdated, limiting their functionality and performance. Users can use Python's advanced machine learning and AI capabilities alongside R's robust statistical packages by combining these two programming languages. This paper explores using R's reticulate package to call Python from R, providing practical examples and highlighting scenarios where this integration enhances productivity and analytical capabilities. With a few hello-world code snippets, we demonstrate how to run Python's scikit-learn, pytorch and OpenAI gym libraries for building Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Reinforcement Learning projects easily.

Reinforcement-Learning based routing for packet-optical networks with hybrid telemetry

This article provides a methodology and open-source implementation of Reinforcement Learning algorithms for finding optimal routes in a packet-optical network scenario. The algorithm uses measurements provided by the physical layer (pre-FEC bit error rate and propagation delay) and the link layer (link load) to configure a set of latency-based rewards and penalties based on such measurements. Then, the algorithm executes Q-learning based on this set of rewards for finding the optimal routing strategies. It is further shown that the algorithm dynamically adapts to changing network conditions by re-calculating optimal policies upon either link load changes or link degradation as measured by pre-FEC BER.