Technical Note
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
DAPT: A Package Enabling Distributed Automated Parameter Testing
Version 1
: Received: 1 March 2021 / Approved: 2 March 2021 / Online: 2 March 2021 (22:21:47 CET)
Version 2 : Received: 3 May 2021 / Approved: 10 May 2021 / Online: 10 May 2021 (09:47:54 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 3 May 2021 / Approved: 10 May 2021 / Online: 10 May 2021 (09:47:54 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Duggan, B.; Metzcar, J.; Macklin, P. DAPT: A Package Enabling Distributed Automated Parameter Testing. Gigabyte, 2021, 2021, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.46471/gigabyte.22. Duggan, B.; Metzcar, J.; Macklin, P. DAPT: A Package Enabling Distributed Automated Parameter Testing. Gigabyte, 2021, 2021, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.46471/gigabyte.22.
Abstract
Modern agent-based models (ABM) and other simulation models require evaluation and testing of many different parameters. Managing that testing for large scale parameter sweeps (grid searches) as well as storing simulation data requires multiple, potentially customizable steps that may vary across simulations. Furthermore, parameter testing, processing, and analysis are slowed if simulation and processing jobs cannot be shared across teammates or computational resources. While high-performance computing (HPC) has become increasingly available, models can often be tested faster through the use of multiple computers and HPC resources. To address these issues, we created the Distributed Automated Parameter Testing (DAPT) Python package. By hosting parameters in an online (and often free) "database", multiple individuals can run tests simultaneously in a distributed fashion, enabling ad hoc crowdsourcing of computational power. Combining this with a flexible, scriptable tool set, teams can evaluate models and assess their underlying hypotheses quickly. Here we describe DAPT and provide an example demonstrating its use.
Keywords
DAPT; workflow; agent-based modeling; model exploration; crowdsourcing
Subject
Computer Science and Mathematics, Algebra and Number Theory
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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