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Which conditions turn localized outbreaks into epidemics? How can we predict urban sprawl? Which policy levers get people turning to green energy? Professor Uri Wilensky has made it his life’s work to give everyone the tools to grasp how small changes play out across complex systems. And, with that, tackle challenges from managing traffic flow to balancing ecosystems.

Uri’s NetLogo agent-based modeling platform is used by students and researchers alike to learn, teach, explore, and critique models of complex systems, adjusting parameters to then examine the interactions between individual actors from which large-scale, non-linear patterns emerge. His goal is that “anyone who can use a keyboard can create and study models of phenomena in both our natural and social world”.

That “low threshold, high ceiling” approach to democratizing access also echoes through his curricula for embedding computational thinking into STEM teaching. Through that work, he’s shown that younger students who learn scientific concepts through computational modeling can grasp concepts with a college student’s level of sophistication.

Uri and his colleagues are also exploring how new ways of representing knowledge — like these computational models — can cause profound shifts in how we think and learn. Uri likens it to the move from Roman to Hindu-Arabic numerals, which changed how we thought about mathematics and gave rise to new concepts like calculus and algebra.

Uri’s been developing his ideas around computational modeling for over 40 years, but they’ve never been more pressing. In a fast-moving, increasingly interconnected world, Uri’s work offers a path to nurture future generations of scientifically literate, interdisciplinary problem solvers, equipped with a deep understanding of complex systems.