Of central concern in many cities, municipalities, and countries is the creation and deployment of intervention programs that can positively affect youth overconsumption of alcohol and other recreational drugs. Creating and implementing measurable and effective such programs to mitigate this can be both expensive and challenging. The SIMLife project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of a new approach with the potential to revolutionize such work. By automating the use of a vast set of data, using a simulation approach built on modern computational technologies and artificial intelligence, an interactive method for the creation and evaluation of intervention programs everywhere is enabled, speeding up such work, reducing uncertainty, and lowering cost. The software simulation gives researchers and practitioners alike a way to address in-silico deep questions about social programs, intervention strategies, their implementation, cost, and effectiveness. The work rests in part on longitudinal data contained in the LIFECOURSE database, developed by Reykjavik University's Dr. Inga Dóra Sigfúsdóttir and her colleagues over the past 30 years. The SIMLife computational infrastructure is intended to supercharge these efforts, providing the next level of social research on which new theories can be built, as well as enabling new and efficient practical uses for a wide variety of stakeholders, from from therapists to urban planners, municipalities to cities to whole countries. The SIMLife proof-of-concept project is co-directed by Dr. Sigfúsdóttir and Dr. Kristinn R. Thórisson.
