Merge pull request #80 from NREL/update-readme

Update readme

Author: brsunnrel

DEMOS_Technical_Memo.pdf

@@ -2,8 +2,19 @@
 
 [![Docs](https://github.com/NREL/DEMOS_NREL/actions/workflows/docs.yml/badge.svg)](https://nrel.github.io/DEMOS_NREL/)
 
+## Overview
+The Demographic Microsimulator (DEMOS) is an agent-based simulation framework used to model the evolution of population demographic characteristics and lifecycle events, such as education attainment, marital status, and other key transitions. DEMOS modules are designed to capture the interdependencies between short-term and long-term lifecycle events, which are often influential in downstream transportation and land-use modeling.
+
+A key feature of DEMOS is its ability to track changes in an agent’s demographic status from year *t* to year *t + 1*. This structure allows the model to evolve populations over any user-defined time horizon. As a result, DEMOS is well suited for analyzing medium- and long-term transportation-related decisions, including household vehicle transactions (e.g., purchasing, selling, or replacing vehicles) and work location choices.
+Core features of DEMOS include the modeling of more than ten lifecycle events, behaviorally realistic patterns informed by long-running panel data, explicit representation of interdependencies among lifecycle processes, and a flexible, modular simulation architecture.
+
+A technical memorandum describing DEMOS is available [here](./DEMOS_Technical_Memo.pdf). The memorandum provides an overview of the framework’s functionality, model structure, input and output data, and its applications in transportation planning and broader policy analysis contexts. Interested readers are also encouraged to consult the paper listed below for additional details on the DEMOS methodology.
+
+
+*Sun, Bingrong, Shivam Sharda, Venu M. Garikapati, Mohamed Amine Bouzaghrane, Juan Caicedo, Srinath Ravulaparthy, Isabel Viegas de Lima, Ling Jin, C. Anna Spurlock, and Paul Waddell. "Demographic Microsimulator for Integrated Urban Systems: Adapting Panel Survey of Income Dynamics to Capture the Continuum of Life." Transportation Research Record (2025): 03611981251333339.*
+
 ## Usage
-> A public Docker image of DEMOS has not been released. Please follow the `From Source` instructions.
+> A public Docker image of DEMOS has been released. Please follow the `From Source` instructions.
 
 ### Docker Container
 The docker image for demos is stored in `registry/demos:latest`. The input data and configuration file are fed to the container through volumes. Alternatively, we provide a `docker-compose` workflow that can be used.
@@ -74,4 +85,4 @@ file_type = "h5"
 table_name = "households"
 filepath = "../data/custom_mpo_06197001_model_data.h5"
 h5_key = "households"
-```
+```