Proceedings of the 9th System Dynamics Ph.D. Colloquium, July 20, 2008, Athens, Greece

Organized by:             
Nici Zimmermann                                    Cécile Emery                       
nzimmermann[at]is.bwl.uni-mannheim.de  cecile.emery[at]lu.unisi.ch
University of Mannheim, Germany            University of Lugano, Switzerland


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On Sunday July 20, 2008 many conference participants came together to attend the 9th PhD Colloquium of the Student Chapter of the System Dynamics Society. The colloquium was organized by Nici Zimmermann and Cécile Emery and attracted about 80 participants. This highly interactive event provided a platform for students to present their current work—research proposals and dissertation work in progress. The purpose of the day was to enable the students to receive valuable feedback from professors and peers, to get to know each other closer, and to learn in a pleasant atmosphere. David Lane’s talk on ‘bad presentation skills’ as well as a panel discussion on ‘publishing strategies’ helped make it an insightful and enjoyable day.

Five doctoral students presented their work in plenary presentations, seven further students in a poster session in the afternoon. The poster session provided the opportunity for a one-to-one exchange with the presenters, and the plenary allowed for half an hour of discussion time for each presenter. The students came together from multiple countries—the USA and Western Europe, and also from Australia and the Middle East. The participants’ geographic diversity yielded a rich mix of research interests that were discussed throughout the day. Topics included business and management applications, ecology and health issues.

The five plenary presentations started with a presentation by Christian Lehr on supply chains. He analyzes closed-loop supply chains and simulates manufacturers’ policy options of using new raw materials or recycled products. Subsequently Adel Alhuraibi’s research was discussed. He hypothesizes that capacity fluctuations and delays have detrimental effects on customer satisfaction and supports his work with the study of two banks in Yemen. Asmeret Bier showed work in the ecology area and on thermal pollution—a simulation game that allows participants to explore trading options and their outcome for the water quality of a river. One student—Rosie Sadsad—addressed health issues. She explained chances that arise from the use of electronic health record systems to prevent adverse drug use that appears frequently in elderly patients. Michael Quigley’s research revealed the differences in goals and reality in higher education enrolment in UK universities and explained dynamically why these goals are not met.