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SCS Simulation News - September, 2002 - Volume 3, Issue 9

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SCS Simulation News
September, 2002 - Volume 3, Issue 9
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Welcome to this month's SCS Simulation News.  This electronic
newsletter is published monthly and sent to your email address.

Our purpose is to keep SCS members and others in the modeling and
simulation communities up to date on the activities of the Society for
Modeling and Simulation International.  Please forward this newsletter
to friends, peers and colleagues with interests in modeling and
simulation.

Please send comments and suggestions to the newsletter editor,
mailto:Newsletter.Editor@scs.org
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1952-2002
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF SIMULATION - THE SOCIETY'S GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY
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Newsletter Contents

1. Historical item of the month
2. News and developments in modeling and simulation
3. Upcoming conferences
4. Publications
5. About SCS
6. Membership in SCS
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1. Historical Item of the month (courtesy of Carl Malstrom)

Lest anyone think that simulating physical systems with the electronic
computing equipment (analog) available in the early 1950?s was easy,
the McLeod?s March 1953 issue of the Simulation Council Newsletter will
provide insight into some of the error and accuracy problems of concern.
The fourth meeting of the Simulation Council was held on March 12 at the
Beckman Instrument Company in Pasadena, CA with the announced meeting
topic being "Systems Design."  At this meeting there was much discussion,
both theoretical and practical, on the sources and analysis of electronic
errors in the, then modern, analog computers in general use.  From a
current perspective it is tempting to say, why bother?  Just use a
digital computer.  But recall, at that time the state of the computer art
(both analog and digital) was primitive, the speed of digital computers
was very slow, and computational speed was inversely proportional to
precision.  The requirements for simulating real and accelerated time
systems containing relative high frequency characteristics were very
demanding. In fact, it is reasonable to equate these analog computing
systems to today?s supercomputers.  The discussion was spirited and
wide ranging as captured so well by McLeod.

At this meeting, McLeod introduced a second challenge to the group
(recall multiplier specs previously) regarding another important
simulator component, the multi-axis "flight table."  As reported from
the meeting:

John then defined a simulator as an analog system working in real time
which may or may not include parts of the system under test. He feels
that a simulator has three main functions. (1) It can be used for
original system design and setting up criteria for the design of
certain components; (2) Actual components can be inserted and the
simulator used to represent the remainder of the system; (3) It can
be used for final checkout.

In order to make simulation as easy as possible on the people doing the
analysis, the simu1ator must be made as complicated as possible.
Complicated loading devices are required, but the critical item in
most missile simulators is the flight table. The design is most
difficult, and usually requires about a "megabuck" to complete. MIT,
Reeves and two or three others have built tables, and there are a
number now being developed. WADC, Bendix, NBS-Corona, NAMTC, and
others are working on this problem.

McLeod then presented a set of desired universal 3 axis flight table
specifications for industry-wide review and comment.

If you would like to experience this meeting through McLeod?s
reporting, read the March 1953 Newsletter online
athttp://www4.ncsu.edu/~cwm/sc-newsletters/1953/SCN-Mar53.pdf
The entire Newsletter archive is also available at
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~cwm/sc-newsletters/
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2.  News and developments in modeling and simulation

* The new executive committee for SCS consists of:
   Bernie Zeigler (President)
   Bruce Fairchild (Past President)
   Francois Cellier (Senior Vice President)
   Mohammad Obaidat (VP Conferences)
   Jeff Wallace (VP Membership)
   Helena Sczerbicka (VP Publications)
   Drew Hamilton (Secretary)
   Joseph Gauthier (Treasurer)
   Steve Branch (Executive Director)

   Much more information is available at Drew Hamilton's web site,
   http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/hamilton/scs/

* Carl Malstrom has compiled an electronic archive of early Simulation
   Council Newsletters.  It is available at
   http://www4.ncsu.edu/~cwm/sc-newsletters/ .  These
   newsletters span a time frame from November 1952 to December 1963,
   at which time the McLeods and the Society made the transition
   to a full-fledged monthly technical journal called "Simulation."

* The HSC preliminary program can be found at http://www.scs.org/hsc
   Conference registrations are now being accepted.

* The Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO), Joint Army Navy
   NASA Air Force (JANNAF) Inter-Agency Propulsion Committee, and
   National Training Systems Association (NTSA) are holding
   Foundations 2002 at Johns Hopkins University on October 22-23.
   http://www.trainingsystems.org/events/31V0/index.cfm

* Has your SCS Membership expired?  The new SCS membership application
   is available online now at http://www.modelingandsimulation.org
<http://www.modelingandsimulation.org/>

* SCS Standards Commitee--

   SCS has recently decided to revitalize the Standards Commitee.  The
   Committee will be soon be formed, and its mission for the next several
   years will be defined.  If you are interested in participating, please
   contact Gabriel Wainer.  mailto:gwainer@sce.carleton.ca

* SPECTS 2003 - The 2003 International Symposium on Performance
   Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems will be held
   July 20-24, 2003, in Montreal, Canada.  The Call for Papers is at
   http://mobile.cse.fau.edu/conference
   Contact Mohammad S. Obaidat, General Chair, for additional information
   mailto:obaidat@monmouth.edu

* John D. Illgen has been named an Industry Expert for World Business
   Review.
   http://www.wbrtv.com <http://www.wbrtv.com/>

* The WMC 2003 International Conference on Health Sciences Simulation
   (see Conferences section) will include the following tutorial and
workshop:

   Ruth M. Davies, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton, will
   offer a tutorial on "The Use of Monte Carlo Simulation, Discrete Event
   Simulation and System Dynamics in Health Systems Modelling."

   Roger W. Jelliffe, M.D., Professor of Medicine, USC, will offer a one
   day workshop on "Principles of Pharmacokinetics ? New Unified Approaches
   to Parametric and Nonparametric Population PK and PD Modeling ?
   Applications to Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and to Optimal
Individualization
   of Drug Therapy and Cancer Chemotherapy."

* We are always seeking news to publish in this electronic newsletter.
   If you have items or information that you would like to appear here,
   please send them by electronic mail to
   mailto:Newsletter.Editor@scs.org
   Include a web address if possible; I'll include a link to your page.
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3.  Upcoming conferences

* Huntsville Simulation Conference 2002
   Huntsville, Alabama
   October 9 - 10, 2002
   http://www.scs.org/hsc

* Foundations 2002
   Laurel, Maryland
   October 22 - 23, 2002
   http://www.trainingsystems.org/events/31V0/index.cfm

* ESS2002 - 14th European Simulation Symposium
   Focused on Simulation in Industry
   Dresden, Germany
   October 23 - 26, 2002
   http://biomath.rug.ac.be/~scs/conf/ess2002

* Fifth International Conference on System Simulation and Scientific
   Computing (ICSC 2002)
   Shanghai, China
   November 3 - 6, 2002
   mailto:icsc2002@mail.shu.edu.cn

* 2002 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC)
   San Diego, CA
   December 8 - 11, 2002
   http://www.wintersim.org <http://www.wintersim.org/>

* The 2003 Western MultiConference on Computer Simulation
   Orlando, Florida
   January 19 - 23, 2003
   http://www.scs.org/confernc/wmc/wmc03/cfp/wmc03.htm

* 22nd IASTED International Conference
   MODELLING, IDENTIFICATION, AND CONTROL (MIC 2003)
   Innsbruck, Austria
   February 10 - 13, 2003
   http://www.iasted.org/conferences/2003/austria/mic.htm

* VIth Conference on Computer Simulation and Industry Applications
   Tijuana,B.C., México
   February 19 - 21, 2003
   mailto:carlosriosj@hotmail.com or mailto:stanracz@netservice.com.mx

* 17th Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation (PADS 2003)
   San Diego, California
   June 10 - 13, 2003
   http://www.pads-workshop.org <http://www.pads-workshop.org/>

* 2003 International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer
   and Telecommunication Systems (SPECTS 2003)
   Montreal, Canada
   July 20 - 24, 2003
   http://mobile.cse.fau.edu/conference
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4.  Publications

* Modeling and Simulation Magazine is the general interest publication
   of the Society.  Contributions are sought from all members of the
   modeling and simulation communities.  See the guidelines at
   http://www.modelingandsimulation.org/MandS0101/pdfs/pubinfo.pdf

* The new monthly journal, SIMULATION: Transactions of The Society
   for Modeling and Simulation International, is devoted to providing
   information on the developments in the field of computer-based
   modeling and simulation.  The journal presents articles in two
   sections, featuring both theoretical and application oriented
   papers, with clear relevance to general modeling and simulation
   issues.  Publication guidelines can be found at
   http://www.scs.org/pubs/simguidelines.html

* Our web vault is at http://scs.affinitycity.com
<http://scs.affinitycity.com/>  Check it out.
   It stores our growing collection of journal and proceedings
   articles.  New articles have recently been added.
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5.  About SCS

* The Society for Modeling and Simulation International is a
   professional society dedicated to the advancement of
   modeling and simulation in all fields.  Read our mission statement
   at http://www.scs.org/mission/missioninfo.html

* Learn more about the SCS organization at
   http://www.scs.org/org/orginfo.html
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6.  Membership in SCS

* Membership in SCS is open to a wide range of professionals.
   For more information, including an online application, visit
   http://www.scs.org/membrshp/membinfo.html
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=========================================================================
This message is forwarded to members of the COSC/Management/Maths 
research group on stochastic simulation at the University of 
Canterbury, Christchurch, New zealand,
and anybody else interested in research in this area

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		Associate Prof. Dr Krzysztof Pawlikowski

	Department of Computer Science,  University of Canterbury
 			Christchurch, New Zealand
		
ph.  +(64) 3 3642 987 ext.7772  email:   krys@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz 
fax. +(64) 3 3642 569      URL:     http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~krys

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