The 2011 Chicago-Argonne Initiative for Computational Economics Summer Workshop

The 2011 Summer Workshop organized by the Chicago-Argonne Initiative for Computational Economics (ICE11) will be held at the University of Chicago from July 18 to July 30, 2011. ICE11 will be a two-week summer program for young scholars interested in applying computational methods to economics.

ICE11 continues the format of ICE07, ICE08, ICE09, and ICE10, with lectures and tutorials on topics in numerical analysis, their applications in economics, and their implementation in a variety of software tools. Participants will work on and present group projects, and will be able to speak with the lecturers about their own work during "office hours".

To facilitate the hands-on computational experience at ICE11 and the ability to use those tools after ICE11, software companies and universities who distribute the state-of-the-art computational software --  Knitro (Ziena), PATH (University of Wisconsin), and SNOPT (Stanford OSL) -- have agreed to give ICE11 participants licenses for their products free of charge until the student finishes their Ph. D.

The aim of ICE11 is to create a collaborative community of computational scientists and economists by training young scholars (advanced graduate students and post-doctoral students) in state-of-the-art numerical methods and computer technology, and their application to economic modeling and analysis.

Summer institute activities will begin with formal tutorials on a range of topics - numerical optimization, dynamic programming, solution methods for dynamic economic models, and computationally intensive methods in statistics - followed by workshops that familiarize participants with computer software applied to economic models. These tutorial sessions are presented by a mix of computational scientists and economists - Ken Judd, Todd Munson, Karl Schmedders and Che-Lin Su. ICE11 participants will also be organized into small groups that will undertake computational projects using the methods presented in the tutorials. Participants can either choose from a list of problems formulated by the organizers or formulate their own computational projects. The second week will focus on seminar presentations by individuals applying state-of-the-art numerical methods to economics problems, and to ICE11 participants' presentations of group project results.

Graduate students from all universities, including those in Europe and Asia, are encouraged to apply to the Institute. All applications will be considered equally; neither the citizenship of an applicant nor his current place of study will be a consideration in our acceptance decisions.

There will be no fee for participating in ICE11. We will provide housing for participants at no charge. Participants are responsible for transportation costs and for their meals. 

ICE11 is funded by the University of Chicago, the Milton Friedman Institute, the Computation Institute, and the Economic Research Center, and is hosted by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.