SOME APPROACHES TO SIMULATION, MODELING, AND GAMING AT SDC

Results of the Washington Division Seminars held 19-21 July at Falls Church, Virginia are presented. The general feeling of the participants was that modeling and simulation should not be considered as separate disciplines because they rely so heavily on contributions not only from the sciences but from the liberal arts. Modeling and simulation are useful tools for scientific inquiry, but should be used judiciously and their predictive qualities applied with knowledgeable caution. Many times a problem can be solved without resort to a computerized simulation. It was suggested that a policy be established to encourage the customer to buy a feasibility study prior to deciding to have such a simulation. The problem may be ill-defined and to rush blindly into a computer simulation may well prove unfortunate.