Presenter: Eswaran Subrahmanian, Research Professor, Carnegie Mellon University and Fields of View The goal of this talk is to illustrate the use of Serious games for inclusive design of systems. The talk will take examples from a developing country context: India. The talk will illustrate how games enhances awareness and participation in the design process. The talk will also use a game on the design of operation of railways in a developed country. The talk will make the case that games are ideal way to deal with participation and design across functional divisions and also linguistic and social boundaries.

1. Serious Games in Complex Design
of Urban Systems and Policy
Eswaran Subrahmanian and the Fields of View Team
CMU and Fields of View
July 22, 2015
Serious games Conference
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

2. Outline
• A complex system
• A methodology for complex system design
• Fields of View
• A framework for designing - PSI
• Methods for imagining Complex systems
• Games – Examples using PSI
• Summary

3. Traditional Model
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4. Complex Adaptive Systems
An Alternate model
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5. 5

6. Realizing a New Methodology
Two key Questions
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7. Realizing a New Methodology
Two key Questions
How do we create a space that allows
for the incorporation of complexity,
participation, visualization,
emergence, exploration, dynamism
and interdisciplinarity?
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8. Realizing a New Methodology
Creating Space for Interdisciplinary Research/
Systems Design
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9. Methodology For
Complex Systems design
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Adapted from J. Lederberg, “Epicycles in Scientific Discovery,” Excitement and Fascination of Science:
Reflections by Eminent Scientists, Annual Reviews, 1990
Stakeholders

11. Fields of view: an Overview

12. A Framework for Designing

13. Characterizing Designing
We characterize the design problem in the Product (P),
Social (S) and Institutional spaces (I)
• PSI Framework (Subrahmanian, Reich and Meijer)
– Product space:
Technical parts, new product, other policies and methods
– Social space:
How people use it, skills and knowledge used, social norms
– Institutional space:
Rules that organisations have, laws, procurement structures,
etc. or markets for specific goods
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Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich,
Meijer

14. PSI a Framework for Understanding Designing:
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Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich,
Meijer
1) Reich, Subrahmanian: Designing PSI, ICED 2015, Milan Italy.
2) Meijer, Subrahmanian, Reich, Serious games for Designing Complex systems,
30th anniversary Richard Duke’s book on Gaming for Strategy and Policy, 2014. 2014.

15. Clarifying “Spaces”
• The spaces are not the physical spaces in which design takes place but…
• Different design contexts could be characterized in each of the 3 spaces
• Depending on the context, each space may have N dimensions
IP S
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Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich,
Meijer

16. Imagination does the work of crisis without a
crisis, making it possible for us to experience
change without ruin.
Imagination cannot do this work with unless it is
suitably equipped.
-Roberto Mangabeira Unger,
In, Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound, 2009.
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17. Methods for Imagining System Needs and
Design Spaces
Simulation
Gaming
Visualization
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18. Policy exercises:
Duke and Geurts (2004) say:
Policy exercises (a combination of gaming, simulation
and participatory modeling) enhance:
– A platform for Communication
– A space for Creativity
– Understanding Complexity
– Reaching Consensus
– Having Commitment to action
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19. What is Gaming Simulation?
• A gaming simulation session:
– mimics the behaviour of a real-world system
– Uses real people as decision makers
– Combines with (computerized) simulation models
• A broad range of simulations in which the role of
a human decision maker is enacted by a real
human participants instead of a computer.
• Technology is not essential, but driven by the
goals of the gaming simulation.
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Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich,
Meijer

20. City Game:
Exploring the Problem Space using Social space

21. Evolution of a City
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22. Evolution of a city
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23. Multiple definitions
for a city
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24. Changing definitions
of a city
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25. Emergency-Coordination game:
Exploring the Institutional Space using the
Space
Funding sponsors
- Next Generation Infrastructure Foundation, TU-Delft, Netherlands
- Jamshetji Tata Trust

26. Emergency co-ordination game
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27. 27

28. ಕಾಸು-ಕಸ / ₹ubbish!
Design across Cultures
Collaborators:
- mediaLab, Amsterdam
- IIIT-Bangalore

30. https://vimeo.c

31. Experiencing Policy making:
A Game for co-ordinating consensus
Funding sponsors
- Next Generation Infrastructure Foundation, TU-Delft, Netherlands
- Jamshetji Tata Trust

32. Indian Energy
Policy Game
Results: A
Sample
Focusing on
Consensus
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33. 33
TEAM 1 TEAM 2

34. A Game to explore Problem and Institutional
Spaces
Funding sponsors
- TARU Leading Edge Private Limited, India.

37. Create Problem space definition and
Corresponding Institutional space design

38. Another example: Dutch Railway System

39. The Challenge
• 100% extra trains 2020
• 50% in 2012 regional
• First: major corridors
• “Untimetabled traffic”
– Like a metro system
• All within 10% of the
budget required in the
‘old’ way
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Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich,
Meijer

40. Gaming in Railway Traffic Control:
System Level Design with Operators
• Traditional design in railway operations is top-down
– Testing in computer simulations
– Then push to operations?
• But will it work in practice?
– Current robustness and resilience is already under pressure
– Engineering has many assumptions about the operations.
– The difference between theory and practice exists only in
practice
• Talking with operations doesn’t help: do it with them!
– Reason is found in implicit, but very effective, mental models
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Copyright © 2015 Subrahmanian, Reich,
Meijer
Courtesy Sebastian Meijer

41. What was Tested and Found?
• A change in the P space (more trains) led to…
….necessary changes in the S space (#perspectives to include in solving
a disruption), which then turned to ask for…
• …changes in the I space (Access to knowledge and Institutional
Structure) (now embodied in the OCCR functionality)
• Gaming as a way to go back and forth between changes.
• Participation of operators in strategic design of infrastructure
IP S

42. In Summary
• There is no right or wrong solutions to Complex
design problems
• It is matter of how the problem is formulated for the
desired outcomes
• Characterizing designing as Problem and social
spaces and institutional spaces.
• Use of games to explore different alternative
explorations of the PSI Space.
• Examples in Energy, Garbage collection, city
design and train systems.

43. Acknowledgement
• Collaborators (current affiliations)
– Bhagyalakshmi – Data collation and Translation (Fields of View)
– Harsha K - Computer Science and Games (Fields of View)
– Onkar Hoysala – Computer science (Fields of View)
– Dr. Robin King –Economist (Georgetown University and Embarq-WRI)
– Sruthi Krishnan – Journalist, Writer and Computer science (Fields of View)
– Dr. Sebastiaan Meijer - Organizations and Games (TU-Delft and KTH Sweden)
– Dr. Niveditha Menon –Sociologist (Center for Budget and Policy Studies)
– Bharath Palavalli – Computer science and Games (Fields of View)
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44. Thank You
sub@cmu.edu
If interested in the work Fields of View does in India –
See http://www.fieldsofview.in
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