Varun Ravi Varma

• Østebø, Håvard; Varma, Varun Ravi & Noori, Nadia (2026). Agent-based model exploring impact of social traits and emerging collective patterns during an emergency evacuation operation. Proceedings - European Council for Modelling and Simulation (ECMS). ISSN 2522-2414. 2026, p. 794–803. doi: 10.7148/2026-0794. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This study presents an agent-based simulation framework for analysing social response during crisis situations, using a fire evacuation scenario as a controlled experimental setting in which the hazard is represented through the spread of smoke. Individuals are modelled as agents with different behavioural strategies, including altruistic, selfish, herding, and rational, interacting in a confined environment affected by smoke, crowding, and exit-capacity constraints. Agents update their behaviour based on local conditions, internal states such as panic and health, and interactions with nearby agents. Three controlled experiments explores how social behaviour, evacuation infrastructure, and hazard severity influences outcomes. The results reveal a non-linear relationship between altruism and survival, identify exit capacity as a critical structural constraint, and indicate that faster smoke spread increases panic, injury rates, and evacuation time. Overall, the findings demonstrate how simple individual decision rules generate complex collective evacuation dynamics under emergency evacuation.

• Ibias, Alfredo; Varma, Varun Ravi; Capala, Karol; Gherardini, Luca & Sousa, Jose (2023). SaNDA: A small and iNcomplete dataset analyser. Information Sciences. ISSN 0020-0255. 640(119078). doi: 10.1016/j.ins.2023.119078. Full text in Research Archive

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