Northwestern Expands NetLogo's Reach with New Center
Northwestern University has launched a new center to improve and maintain NetLogo, a widely used scientific and educational software tool, and to promote literacy in scientific modeling.
The goal is to ensure NetLogo remains freely available in the long run and to foster an ecosystem of educators, researchers, designers, and learners contributing to a future of "modeling literacy for all," said Uri Wilensky, who designed and authored NetLogo and was awarded the 2025 Yidan Prize, the world's largest award for education research.
Jacob Kelter, who earned his PhD last year working with Wilensky and first used NetLogo as an undergraduate student, is now the executive director of the new NetLogo Center, based at the School of Education and Social Policy. He will lead efforts to grow the software's user community and extend its impact.
- Read more about the first NetLogo conference, June 29-July 1.
The center "is very lucky to get Kelter as its executive director," Wilensky said. "Both the software and the community will grow and thrive due to the potential of new initiatives."
NetLogo was developed more than 30 years ago by Wilensky, the Lorraine H. Morton Professor of Learning Sciences and Computer Science, to help people model, analyze, and visualize complex systems. These include phenomena such as how forest fires spread, how diseases move through populations, and how species interact and evolve in ecosystems.
"The NetLogo software enables users to create simulations of many interacting 'agents' in which these agents can represent people, animals, molecules, or businesses," Wilensky explained. "Students can program how these agents behave and then investigate how their actions affect the system over time."
The center's goal is to promote modeling literacy in education, research, and policy, "because modeling is at the core of scientific understanding and problem solving and is a key tool for tackling complex global challenges," Wilensky said. "NetLogo's open-source nature will allow anyone to access, modify, and contribute to the tools and models, making them better over time."
"Every student should learn NetLogo," said Kelter, adding that it changed the trajectory of his life. "It's a very general and powerful way of thinking about the world."
The team has created a website and online forum for users. The latest version, NetLogo 7,is now available with an updated, easier-to-use design.
Wilensky designed NetLogo, in the spirit of the programming language Logo, to be "low threshold and high ceiling." Viewing it as a new literacy, he wanted it to be accessible to everyone, and particularly children.
It's now the most popular agent-based modeling software in the world, used by millions of researchers, policymakers, and K-16 educators. Its use in both education and research creates a seamless pathway for students to progress from learning to conducting original research. This continuity enhances the tool's educational value and supports the development of future researchers.
Thousands of scientific articles have been published using NetLogo, and the desktop version has been downloaded about 3 million times from the website since 2010.
"NetLogo is not just software, and not just a programming language. It's an environment that changes the way you think," said Mike Horn, associate professor of learning sciences and computer science and member of the new NetLogo initiative.
Kelter agreed. NetLogo, he said, immediately changed the way he understood science and many aspects of the world. "Once you try it, you begin thinking, 'Wait, where has this been all my life?'" he said. "It's now a crucial tool in many areas of research and is used around the world in education. Our goal now is to expand it substantially and promote modeling literacy for all."
Wilensky is the founding director of the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, a research group that develops tools, learning environments, and curricula.
He also founded and co-directs Northwestern's joint computer science and learning sciences doctoral program — the first of its kind in the U.S. — and was a co-founder of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems.