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Eswaran Subrahmanian - Serious Games in Complex Design of Urban Systems and Policy

Presenter: Eswaran Subrahmanian, Research Professor, Carnegie Mellon University and Fields of View The goal of this talk is to illustrate the use of Serious games for inclusive design of systems. The talk will take examples from a developing country context: India. The talk will illustrate how games enhances awareness and participation in the design process. The talk will also use a game on the design of operation of railways in a developed country. The talk will make the case that games are ideal way to deal with participation and design across functional divisions and also linguistic and social boundaries.

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Eswaran Subrahmanian - Serious Games in Complex Design of Urban Systems and Policy

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  1. Serious Games in Complex Design of Urban Systems and Policy Eswaran Subrahmanian and the Fields of View Team CMU and Fields of View July 22, 2015 Serious games Conference Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

  2. Outline • A complex system • A methodology for complex system design • Fields of View • A framework for designing - PSI • Methods for imagining Complex systems • Games – Examples using PSI • Summary

  3. Traditional Model 3

  4. Complex Adaptive Systems An Alternate model 4

  5. 5

  6. Realizing a New Methodology Two key Questions 6

  7. Realizing a New Methodology Two key Questions How do we create a space that allows for the incorporation of complexity, participation, visualization, emergence, exploration, dynamism and interdisciplinarity? 7

  8. Realizing a New Methodology Creating Space for Interdisciplinary Research/ Systems Design 8

  9. Methodology For Complex Systems design Stakeholders Adapted from J. Lederberg, “Epicycles in Scientific Discovery,” Excitement and Fascination of Science: Reflections by Eminent Scientists, Annual Reviews, 1990 9

  10. Fields of view: an Overview

  11. A Framework for Designing

  12. Characterizing Designing We characterize the design problem in the Product (P), Social (S) and Institutional spaces (I) • PSI Framework (Subrahmanian, Reich and Meijer) – Product space: Technical parts, new product, other policies and methods – Social space: How people use it, skills and knowledge used, social norms – Institutional space: Rules that organisations have, laws, procurement structures, etc. or markets for specific goods Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich, 13 Meijer

  13. PSI a Framework for Understanding Designing: 1) Reich, Subrahmanian: Designing PSI, ICED 2015, Milan Italy. 2) Meijer, Subrahmanian, Reich, Serious games for Designing Complex systems, 30thanniversary Richard Duke’s book on Gaming for Strategy and Policy, 2014. 2014. Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich, Meijer 14

  14. Clarifying “Spaces” • • • The spaces are not the physical spaces in which design takes place but… Different design contexts could be characterized in each of the 3 spaces Depending on the context, each space may have N dimensions I S P Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich, Meijer 15

  15. Imagination does the work of crisis without a crisis, making it possible for us to experience change without ruin. Imagination cannot do this work with unless it is suitably equipped. -Roberto Mangabeira Unger, In, Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound, 2009. 16

  16. Methods for Imagining System Needs and Design Spaces Simulation Gaming Visualization 17

  17. Policy exercises: Duke and Geurts (2004) say: Policy exercises (a combination of gaming, simulation and participatory modeling) enhance: – A platform for Communication – A space for Creativity – Understanding Complexity – Reaching Consensus – Having Commitment to action 18

  18. What is Gaming Simulation? • A gaming simulation session: – mimics the behaviour of a real-world system – Uses real people as decision makers – Combines with (computerized) simulation models • A broad range of simulations in which the role of a human decision maker is enacted by a real human participants instead of a computer. • Technology is not essential, but driven by the goals of the gaming simulation. Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich, 19 Meijer

  19. City Game: Exploring the Problem Space using Social space

  20. Evolution of a City 21

  21. Evolution of a city 22

  22. Multiple definitions for a city 23

  23. Changing definitions of a city 24

  24. Emergency-Coordination game: Exploring the Institutional Space using the Space Funding sponsors - Next Generation Infrastructure Foundation, TU-Delft, Netherlands - Jamshetji Tata Trust

  25. Emergency co-ordination game 26

  26. 27

  27. ಕಾಸು-ಕಸ / ₹ubbish! Design across Cultures Collaborators: - mediaLab, Amsterdam - IIIT-Bangalore

  28. https://vimeo.com/117558184

  29. Experiencing Policy making: A Game for co-ordinating consensus Funding sponsors - Next Generation Infrastructure Foundation, TU-Delft, Netherlands - Jamshetji Tata Trust

  30. Indian Energy Policy Game Results: A Sample Focusing on Consensus 32

  31. TEAM 1 TEAM 2 33

  32. A Game to explore Problem and Institutional Spaces Funding sponsors - TARU Leading Edge Private Limited, India.

  33. Create Problem space definition and Corresponding Institutional space design

  34. Another example: Dutch Railway System

  35. The Challenge • 100% extra trains 2020 • 50% in 2012 regional • First: major corridors • “Untimetabled traffic” – Like a metro system • All within 10% of the budget required in the ‘old’ way Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich, Meijer 39

  36. Gaming in Railway Traffic Control: System Level Design with Operators • Traditional design in railway operations is top-down – Testing in computer simulations – Then push to operations? • But will it work in practice? – Current robustness and resilience is already under pressure – Engineering has many assumptions about the operations. – The difference between theory and practice exists only in practice • Talking with operations doesn’t help: do it with them! – Reason is found in implicit, but very effective, mental models Courtesy Sebastian Meijer Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich, 40 Meijer

  37. What was Tested and Found? • A change in the P space (more trains) led to… ….necessary changes in the S space (#perspectives to include in solving a disruption), which then turned to ask for… …changes in the I space (Access to knowledge and Institutional Structure) (now embodied in the OCCR functionality) • • • Gaming as a way to go back and forth between changes. Participation of operators in strategic design of infrastructure I S P

  38. In Summary • There is no right or wrong solutions to Complex design problems • It is matter of how the problem is formulated for the desired outcomes • Characterizing designing as Problem and social spaces and institutional spaces. • Use of games to explore different alternative explorations of the PSI Space. • Examples in Energy, Garbage collection, city design and train systems.

  39. Acknowledgement • Collaborators (current affiliations) – Bhagyalakshmi – Data collation and Translation (Fields of View) – Harsha K - Computer Science and Games (Fields of View) – Onkar Hoysala – Computer science (Fields of View) – Dr. Robin King –Economist (Georgetown University and Embarq-WRI) – Sruthi Krishnan – Journalist, Writer and Computer science (Fields of View) – Dr. Sebastiaan Meijer - Organizations and Games (TU-Delft and KTH Sweden) – Dr. Niveditha Menon –Sociologist (Center for Budget and Policy Studies) – Bharath Palavalli – Computer science and Games (Fields of View) 43

  40. Thank You sub@cmu.edu If interested in the work Fields of View does in India – See http://www.fieldsofview.in 44

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