Upcoming Cafés

Dear Café Goers,

Our second Fall 2026 Café:

• Where: Clyde's Gastropub (on the UCCS campus)
• When: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 4:30 - 6:00 pm
• Featuring: Dr. Fuzhen Yin, Assistant Professor in GES
• Title: Generative Agents and Artificial Societies: Simulating Cities for Better Decision-Making
• Abstract: What if we could create a virtual society to explore how people might respond to new policies or unexpected crises? Agent-based modeling makes this possible by creating virtual people, or agents, that perceive their surroundings, make decisions, and take action. When thousands of these agents interact with one another and their environment, they form an artificial society—a simulated world in which we can explore how individual decisions shape complex urban life. Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) are making these agents more sophisticated, enabling them to reason, communicate in natural language, and respond in ways that reflect different personalities. In this talk, Dr. Yin will trace the evolution of agent-based modeling, from rule-based simulations to AI-powered generative agents. Through examples ranging from housing policies, the spread of public opinion to crisis management, the talk explores the potential and the challenges of virtual societies to inform real-world urban decisions.

Funding for the Colorado Springs Café Scientifique provided by the LAS Dean's Office and the UCCS Administration and Finance Team. Support provided by the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies.