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SCS_Simulation_News] SCS Simulation News - December, 2002 - Volume 3, Issue 12

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SCS Simulation News
December, 2002 - Volume 3, Issue 12
______________________________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________________________

1952-2002
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF SIMULATION - THE SOCIETY'S GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY
_______________________________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________________________

1. Historical Item of the month (courtesy of Carl Malstrom)

The June 25, 1953 Simulation Council meeting was held in the College of
Engineering at UCLA hosted by Dr. Tom Rogers.  The subject of the
meeting was "Setting up the Simulation," or as McLeod facetiously put
it in the last newsletter "How to get into and out of simulation in one
easy lesson," or "Is all this necessary?"  The topic was addressed in
different ways by several presenters who, as usual, generated lively
and useful discussion.

A high point of the meeting was a tour of some of the unique simulation
facilities used in research at UCLA.  At the time they were using a
collection of 100 Beckman amplifiers and building more EASE type
equipment to assemble into an operational console.  There were three
racks of Philbrick analog equipment available for student use which had
been in use for four years with minimal maintenance problems.  In the
vibrations laboratory, 40 EASE amplifiers had been modified,
miniaturized, and mounted in a single roll-around relay rack with power
supply and patch panel, for use in studying the vibration modes of
beams under plastic conditions.  In the thermal lab, there was an
analyzer consisting of electrical networks and a patch board for
solving thermal problems in three dimensions.  This is called
simulation by direct analogy and was being used to study aircraft
heating problems.  In the power lab, there was another network analyzer
(special purpose computer) designed to simulate alternating current
power distribution problems.

One UCLA machine of special note was the predecessor of the electronic
differential analyzer, AKA the analog computer.  That was the UCLA
mechanical differential analyzer, made by General Electric.  It had 16
integrators of the wheel and disk type, in which the output servo is
made to follow the rotation of the wheel by a beam of polarized light.
Dr. Rodgers said the analyzer has been called "the most modern piece
of obsolete equipment in existence," but McLeod comments that "this is
inaccurate because there are certain applications where its greater
accuracy (at least one order better than electronic integrators) gives
it an advantage.  The analyzer was working on an economic problem when
seen on the tour and Rodgers remarked, "We certainly seem to have an
unstable economy."  On a personal note, in the mid 1950’s when I was
working on B47 bomber aircraft in the USAF Strategic Air Command the
heart of the on-board bombing and navigation computer on those aircraft
was a large heavy black box containing a mechanical differential
analyzer made up of many disks, shafts, and gears.  For that time and
function, there is something to be said for both the accuracy and
radiation resistance of mechanics over electronics.

To read more about the presentation at the meeting and the other
simulation activities going on at UCLA at that time, go to the June
1953 Newsletter online at
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~cwm/sc-newsletters/1953/SCN-Jun53.pdf
The entire Newsletter archive is also available at
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~cwm/sc-newsletters/

This concludes the "look-back" we have been doing during this, our
50th Anniversary year of the Society.  Reviewing the material for this
retrospective has been enriching for me, and I hope you have enjoyed
reading about what was happening in those early days of simulation
and the formation of the society.  Cheers…CWM
______________________________________________________________________

2.  News and developments in modeling and simulation

* A personal note--This will be my last issue as editor of the SCS
      Simulation News.  Over the past three years, I've enjoyed all of
      the communication that I've received from SCS members and many
      others in the simulation community.  Thank you for your support
      of this effort.  Bob Lipset.

* The 2003 Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference 2003
      (ASTC '03) will be co-located with SISO's 2003 Spring Simulation
      Interoperability Workshop.  See the conference section below for
      more information.

* The Army Model and Simulation Office's web site contains a lot of
      new information regarding their activities.  Visit
      http://www.amso.army.mil/
______________________________________________________________________

3.  Upcoming conferences

* 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

* 2003 Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference (ASTC 2003)
      Orlando, Florida
      March 30 - April 3, 2003
      http://www.scs.org/confernc/astc/astc03/cfp/astc03.htm

* Agent-Based Simulation 4
      Montpellier, France
      April 28 - 30, 2003
      http://abs2003.cirad.fr/index_an.html

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

* 2003 Summer Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC '03)
      Montreal, Canada
      July 20 - 24, 2003
      http://www.scs.org/confernc/ssimc/ssimc03/cfp/scsc03.htm

* 2003 International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer
      and Telecommunication Systems (SPECTS '03)
      Montreal, Canada
      July 20 - 24, 2003
      http://www.scs.org/confernc/ssimc/ssimc03/cfp/spects03.htm

* 7th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and
      Informatics (SCI 2003)
      Orlando, Florida
      July 27 - 30, 2003
      http://www.iiisci.org/sci2003/
____________________________________________________________________

4.  Publications

Appropriate technical contributions are welcome for the following
two publications of SCS. For more information, visit
http://www.scs.org/pubs/pubsinfo.html

SIMULATION: Transactions of The Society for Modeling and Simulation
International is the monthly refereed transactions of the leading
society devoted to advancing the discipline and profession of
modeling and simulation. An archival journal in both print and
electronic form, it consists of distinct sections--one devoted
to theory, the other to applications. Published articles must have
a clear relevance to general modeling and simulation issues. In
addition to its archival mission, the journal aims to help
professionals and researchers, particularly those involved in
multidisciplinary projects, apply advances in modeling and simulation
theory, methodology, and technology to their application areas.

Manuscript submission is online. To submit a manuscript, go to:
http://simulation.manuscriptcentral.com/

MODELING & SIMULATION Magazine is the general interest publication
of SCS. Contributions from all members of the modeling and simulation
community are welcome. Examples of topics include the following:
* Hardware/software releases: What does your new or latest product do?
How is it better? What doesn’t it do?
* Major research efforts and breakthroughs, both academic and industrial.
* Researchers’ reports on progress in layperson’s terms.
* New requests for proposals, new projects/contracts/funding announcements.
* Progress in education/training; infusion of modeling and simulation
into general curriculum.

The two main goals of this publication are to present papers that are
readable to the non-expert and to provide useful information related to
the field of modeling and simulation.

Press releases and news about modeling and simulation can be suggested
for publication by sending material to Steve Branch at
mailto:sbranch@scs.org

Technical articles can be submitted for consideration by writing to the
SCS Managing Editor at mailto:Editor@scs.org

To view an issue of this magazine, go to:
http://www.modelingandsimulation.org/
______________________________________________________________________

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
______________________________________________________________________

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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