In this meeting Milan gave an introductory presentation about Repast Simphony (Repast S) agent-based modeling toolkit. During the meeting, Milan showcased the official Repast S Predator Prey tutorial and provided links for software download, documentation and tutorials. A brief introduction to agent-based modeling (ABM) paradigm and potential applications domains have also been given.
The advantages of a specialized toolkit for ABM, instead of using a general (usually object-oriented) programming language, are firstly in the collection of libraries for agent-based design, which covers features such as scheduling, communication mechanisms, interaction topologies (networks, grids, GIS), facilities for storing and displaying agent-states etc. Another advantage of an agent-based toolkit such as Repast S is the runtime environment, which allows us to set up simulation parameters, to execute and visualize simulations, to probe agent states, to generate graphical displays of the outputs etc. Repast S has particularly rich support for linking the results to various external programs, as well as libraries for advanced computational techniques (genetic algorithms, neural networks, regression models, Monte Carlo method etc.).
One of the most interesting features of Repast S, however, is the graphical development environment which allows us to create agents by drawing (drag-and-drop) flowcharts on top of which groovy code is then automatically generated. Also, by setting properties of various model elements and by using wizards it is possible to make further adjustments to the model without or with little actual coding, which seams an interesting features for those who would like to develop agent-based models but still possess limited programming skills. Of course, an experienced Java programmer can also write Java code from scratch, without using this graphical user interface. 
