The Profession of Modeling and Simulation : Discipline, Ethics, Education, Vocation, Societies, and Economics

Led by two well-known experts in the field, this book features state-of-the-art contributions from international professionals and academics and successfully bridges the gap between modeling and simulation (M&S) industry and education. Inspired by the late Bill Waite's advances and contributions to the M&S profession, this book addresses three pivotal areas of the M&S profession: the body of knowledge and origins of the profession of M&S; the discipline of M&S; and the economy and challenges facing M&S professionals. Beginning with an introduction to the many facets of simulation, key terminology and contemporary definitions of simulation are presented, as well as the evolution of simulation, the fundamental science and methodology, modeling formalisms, model-base management, model parameters and parameter-based management, and model processing techniques. The growth of M&S within academic programs throughout the world and the resulting expanded job market and company formation around M&S are both thoroughly discussed. In addition, the body of knowledge needed to be an M&S professional is presented. Contributions highlight recent developments within the education of M&S professionals; provide recommendations on the necessary next steps in the development of these academic institutions; and review the Certified Modeling and Simulation Professional (CMSP) examination, which is a professional certificate examination that recognizes individuals who have attained a significant degree of knowledge and experience in M&S. M&S education for the military is also addressed, including the motivation and circumstances surrounding the development of the U.S. Army Functional Area 57 and the efforts during that period to bolster the practice of M&S and related community-wide initiatives to identify and address key research challenges in the field. The development of the M&S discipline in China is explored, which provides a vision for an enterprise-level view of M&S. Contributions also demonstrate how to translate models defined using various computer languages and illustrate the need for M&S professionals to be armed with the theory, concepts, and tools needs to address the challenges of cyber environments to support contemporary model-based system engineering.