Iflows: A novel simulation model for predicting the effectiveness of a research community

This paper presents a simulation model for observing the dynamics of a research community in engineering. The objective is to study how parameters, like group expertise and resources, influence the effectiveness of the group and community as a whole. The model implements a game-theoretic approach in which every group maximizes the difference between its rewards and costs (e.g., time and resources). Experiments studied the total reward and the number of problems solved over time by a community made of twenty groups for different conditions, i.e. allocated resources and group characteristics.