Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Working on a VUE concept map of the fieldTest simulation

Posted 22 Jun 2013 / 0

Jennifer Verdolin, Dylan Moore, and I created the fieldTest simulator several years ago. This individual-based simulation allows virtual animals with the potential to form social groups that defend territories to interact on landscapes containing different patterns and abundances of resources, and is part of my larger research into group territorial behavior. We presented our results at the 2009 Read More

A Major Post, Behavioral Ecology, Competition, Concept Mapping, Department of Mathematics & Science, Ecological Modeling, Group Territorial Behavior, Individual-based Models, Information Design, Spatially Explicit Modeling

“The Sustainable Use of Fisheries” now a part of the EcoEd Digital Library

Posted 21 Jun 2013 / 0

I am proud to report that The Sustainable Use of Fisheries, one of the teaching tools that I have developed, is available on the EcoEd Digital Library. Provided as an educational outreach project of the Ecological Society of America, EcoEd provides teachers with a variety of different lesson materials for planning lectures, laboratories, and other classroom activities. Read More

A Major Post, Ecological Society of America, Pratt Institute, Teaching Tools, The Sustainable Use of Fisheries

Useful guides for writing good pseudocode

Posted 18 Jun 2013 / 0

I am slogging away at writing up a long-overdue individual-based modeling project that I presented eons ago at ESA 2009 and ESA 2010, and I am trying my best to present the model in complete form. This project is the result of a lot of work by me and my collaborators Jennifer Verdolin and Dylan Read More

A Minor Post, Computing, Conferences, Ecological Society of America

The benefits of a maintaining a relatively small in-group

Posted 29 May 2013 / 1

WNYC Micropolis “Hasidic Supermarkets and the Virtues of Insularity” Although I think that this is an interesting little feature, it mistakenly attributes the benefits of this trust to a lack of diversity. What allows this trust is a relatively small, highly-integrated society. If the larger city lacks anything, it is the level of social integration Read More

A Minor Post, Cooperation, Cultural Anthropology, Economics, Ethics, Radio & Podcasts, Reputation, Social Networks, Sociology

Pratt Professor Ágnes Mócsy releases “Smashing Matters” short film

Posted 21 May 2013 / 0

A colleague of mine, Associate Professor Ágnes Mócsy, just released her first short film, smashing matters: Featuring a really broad array of eminent physics researchers, this film uses the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider as a case study for how funding basic science research leads to social progress. Although I am not predisposed to believing that all basic Read More

A Minor Post, Film, Television, & Video, Grants & Funding, Public Policy, Science in Art & Design

Pratt Institute holds 124th Commencement, special gallery show

Posted 14 May 2013 / 0

Pratt celebrated its 124th commencement ceremony at Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013. I always try to make it to graduation to honor the hard work of our graduating seniors. Although there are usually a few students graduating who I worked with closely, mostly I go to see the many students Read More

A Major Post, Pratt Institute

Rhett Bradbury’s Master’s Thesis explores how gaming can foster political leadership

Posted 01 May 2013 / 0

Rhett Bradbury has been a crucial member of Envirolutions over the past two years. Our only graduate student member, Rhett started coming to club meetings during his first semester at Pratt. Rhett’s skills as a graphic designer have had a profound effect on how Envirolutions has communicated with the rest of the campus: his posters, logos, and other visual Read More

A Major Post, Mentoring, Political Science

NPR piece suggests that economics are pushing us towards nutrient recycling

Posted 10 Apr 2013 / 0

NPR All Things Considered “Cities Turn Sewage Into ‘Black Gold’ For Local Farms” This is a really interesting piece because it suggests that the costs associated with properly disposing of human waste are beginning to incentivize municipalities to repurpose this waste as fertilizer. As this feature indicates, landfilling and (even worse) incineration have been in Read More

A Minor Post, Closed Loop Systems, Economic sustainability, Pollution, Radio & Podcasts, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture

Envirolutions asks the Pratt community to identify where there is “room for improvement”

Posted 29 Mar 2013 / 0

During this year’s Green Week celebration, Envirolutions club members brought their Room for Improvement campaign to the campus, asking members of the Pratt community to identify where the campus has the most “room to improve” in terms of sustainability. Two enticements incentivized participation: those who filled out a survey could grab a snack and pick out their own Envirolutions button to Read More

A Major Post, Envirolutions, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy

A spatial version of the Traveler’s Dilemma allows cooperation to persist

Posted 23 Mar 2013 / 0

PLos ONE “Evolution of Cooperation in Spatial Traveler’s Dilemma Game“

A Minor Post, Cooperation, Game Theory, Reciprocity, Spatially Explicit Modeling