NEW 2026 Version of "Improve Your Talks - How to Stand out at Conferences"

 

I held a revised, short version of my talk on how to improve your talks.
Find the slides HERE.

Ants Double-Bridge Experiment Model for Netlogo

I programmed a Netlogo model that simulates the Double-Bridge Experiment [1] of ants finding the shorter path to food in a laboratory setting that we intend to submit as a Netlogo Library model.

The model works with Netlogo 6.4.0 and up because we showcase the who-are-not keyword that has been newly introduced with Netlogo 6.4.0.

DOWNLOAD HERE.

[1] Goss, S. A., Denebourg, J. L., and Pasteels, J. (1989). Self-organized shortcuts in the argentine ant. Naturwissenschaften, 76(12):579–581

New Beginner's Guide to NetLogo Programming

Here is a new Beginner's Guide /  Beginner's Interactive NetLogo Dictionary released by the NetLogo project.

Check it out if you want to start to learn NetLogo.
It will take you through the first steps - what NetLogo is, how to install it, which commands (primitves) to learn first, and includes several video tutorials where they show how to use NetLogo's Library and how to build a number of models from scratch yourself.

Interactive Website to Explore Complex Systems - Complexity Explorables

I recently came across a very nice interactive website where one can explore and play with complex systems:

Complexity Explorables

A collection of interactive explorable explanations of complex systems in biology, physics, mathematics, social sciences, epidemiology, ecology and other fields....

by Prof. Dirk Brockman of Humboldt Uni Berlin.




Check it out, it's fun!

Wacom Tablets and Drawing in Browser-based Apps Problem - Workaround

 If you have used a Wacom tablet to draw in browser-based apps, like BigBlueButton (communication/classroom software) or a shared whiteboard like awwapp.com you might have had the problem that the stylus only draws when pressing the right mouse button - even when the stylus is otherwise correctly configured and draws fine on eg. a Powerpoint presentation.

The first idea for a workaround is to configure the stylus tip as the right mouse button but this means that as soon as you move the stylus out of the drawing area the browser will interpret the tip as the right button and then using the stylus becomes very uncomfortable.

I hoped the problem would go away with a Wacom driver update but it didn't. Well, turns out that Windows ink (Windows Freihand in German) is the culprit. If you turn off Windows ink in the Wacom driver the stylus will work perfectly fine also in browser-based apps. You configure the stylus tip as the left mouse button (as normal) and deselect the Windows ink checkbox (which for some reason is on the "Projection" tab of the driver software) and everything works as it should.

What were you thinking Microsoft?!? I just realized that a lot of other people are having lots of trouble with Windows ink, too, also in other apps. WTH? And what are you thinking, Wacom to have that set to "on" as the default setting in your driver?!?

TL;DR: if your Wacom tablet stylus only wants to draw with the right mouse button in browser-based apps, turn off Windows ink (checkbox on the "Projection" tab of the Wacom driver software).

HTH, HAND.

Paper: Topology Characterization for Position-based Wireless Network Topology Generators

Together with Wilfried Elmenreich I published a paper which was presented at WiMob in October last year. See the conference summary and a paper summary on Wilfried's blogs:

Remember the Conferences?

Topology Characterization for Position-based Wireless Network Topology Generators

or if that is TL;DR, get the paper here:

Martina Umlauft and Wilfried Elmenreich. Topology Characterization for Position-based Wireless Network Topology Generators. In Anna Maria Vegni, editor, 15th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob 2019), Barcelona, Spain, Oktober 2019. IEEE.

Tips and Ideas for Online Presentations

Due to everything moving online, I have created a slide deck with some tips specifically for online presentations. Online presentations pose their own challenges which are different from real-life presentations, so take a look HERE:

Stay safe & healthy, everyone!