Collaborative Research: DASS: Agent Based Modeling at the Boundary of Law and Software

该项目研究了社会背景的基于代理的模型（ABM）如何改善可问责软件系统的设计和监管。基于Agent的建模是一种社会科学研究方法，涉及复杂系统的自下而上建模，并通过运行模拟来计算确定其涌现属性。研究人员使用ABM来模拟软件系统运行的社会和监管环境的元素。该项目的新颖之处在于其跨学科的综合，将ABM从社会科学应用到软件规范和自动化测试，就像在计算机科学中所做的那样，以指导技术法规的制定和执行，这是一个法律的问题。该项目的影响是为公共政策和教学提供信息，并为软件系统的自动化测试提供开源软件工具包。软件、监管和社会相互作用，产生不可预测的、有时是不良的动态反馈效应。本项目探讨ABM和科学模拟如何通过帮助监管机构、领域专家、软件设计人员和其他利益相关者评估特定软件和监管系统的潜在社会影响，来解决法律的要求和软件设计之间的差距。研究人员将ABM用于三项任务：（1）使用法规模型和软件运行的社会环境来创建软件规范，（2）使用其社会影响的模拟来测试软件系统的合规性，以及（3）设计反映这些新工具的法规。该项目开发了这些通用方法，用于改进可问责软件系统的设计，并通过对两个特定领域的探索，促进对软件设计的法律的背景的理解：在线广告系统对住房隔离的影响，以及传染病接触者追踪中隐私和准确性之间的权衡-该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project studies how agent-based models (ABMs) of social contexts can improve the design and regulation of accountable software systems. Agent-based modeling is a social scientific research method that involves bottom-up modeling of complex systems and computationally determining their emergent properties by running simulations. The investigators use ABMs to model elements of the social and regulatory environment in which a software system operates. The project’s novelties are due to its interdisciplinary synthesis, applying ABMs from social sciences to software specification and automated testing, as done in computer science, to guide the crafting and enforcement of technology regulations, a legal concern. The project's impacts are informing public policy and teaching as well as providing an open-source software toolkit for the automated testing of software systems.Software, regulation, and society interact with unpredictable and sometimes undesirable dynamic feedback effects. This project explores how ABMs and scientific simulation can address the gap between legal requirements and software design by helping regulators, domain experts, software designers, and other stakeholders assess the potential societal implications of particular software and regulatory systems. The investigators use ABMs for three tasks: (1) creating software specifications using models of regulations and the social environment in which software operates, (2) testing software systems for compliance using simulations of their social impact, and (3) designing regulations that reflect these new tools. The project develops these general methods for improving the design of accountable software systems and advancing the understanding of the legal context of software design through the exploration of two specific domains: the effects of online advertising systems on housing segregation and the tradeoffs between privacy and accuracy in contact tracing for infectious-disease control.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.