SIGSIM is growing and changing along with the rest of the computer and simulation world. We are becoming involved in more activities and extending our services to include the Internet. This column describes some of these activities and other items of interest.
SIGSIM Growth
In the last SIGSIM election two of the candidates were from Europe. Though they were not
selected as officers, we felt that their interest in serving SIGSIM could be put to good use. As a
result we established a SIGSIM European Committee with Ray Paul of Brunel University as
Chairman and Enver Yucesan of INSEAD as Vice-Chairman. Their mission is to promote
SIGSIM through European activities, conferences, and journals. This may lead to the creation of
local SIGSIM Chapters or other events as they see fit.
Contact: Ray Paul, Ray_Paul@brunel.ac.uk
We are also in the process of forming a local SIGSIM chapter in Orlando, Florida. Many of the
US military's leading simulation projects are centered there. Orlando is the home for projects
like Distributed Interactive Simulation, Fire Support Combined Arms Tactical Trainer, Battle
Lab Reconfigurable Simulator Initiative, Joint Simulation System, the Institute for Simulation
and Training at the University of Central Florida, and Advanced Distributed Simulation
Technology. Dr. Ratan Guha of the Computer Science department at UCF has agreed to serve as
the Chairman of this chapter. We are still looking for a Vice-chairman and Secretary in order to
begin the ACM chartering process.
Contact: Roger Smith, smithr@mystech.com
In 1997 ACM will celebrate its 50th anniversary. This celebration, dubbed "The 100-Year
Journey in Computing", includes special activities and cooperation with other groups throughout
the year. Activities culminate in the ACM97 Conference in San Jose, California. This
conference will provide a forum in which leader from industry, government, and academia will
share their vision for the next 50 years in computing. SIGSIM is organizing a multimedia exhibit
which illustrates the application of simulation and other technologies for training Emergency
Management Teams to respond to earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, floods, and other natural
disasters. This exhibit will include a working simulation and will illustrate the interrelationships
between many different computer technologies to support complex activities. We are discussing
a joint effort with the ACM SIGs representing graphics, human-computer interfaces, artificial
intelligence, communications, multimedia, databases, security, algorithms, and educational
applications.
Contact: Roger Smith, smithr@mystech.com
Web Page: http://www.acm.org/acm97
Internet Activities
The Internet is a hotbed of activity in simulation, just as it is in other areas. SIGSIM is currently
creating an active web presence to serve members. The new SIGSIM Information Officer,
Sudhir Srinivasan, is organizing and publishing material for these pages.
Contact: Sudhir Srinivasan, sudhirs@mystech.com
Web Page: http://www.acm.org/sigsim
SIGSIM is interested in communicating with its members electronically. Unfortunately, neither
ACM nor SIGSIM have the e-mail addresses of most of the members. We would like to create a
SIGSIM mailing list to distribute activity announcements and requests for volunteers. Please
send your e-mail address.
Contact: Roger Smith, smithr@mystech.com
There is a simulation journal published only on the World Wide Web. The International Journal
of Computer Simulation: Modeling and Analysis (CSMA) publishes refereed papers on a variety
of simulation topics in postscript format. Abstracts of the papers can be read before deciding
download the entire article. CSMA is edited by James Cremer at the University of Iowa.
Web Page: http://piranha.eng.buffalo.edu/simulation
Simulation professionals may also attend a virtual conference on the Internet. The 1996
Electronic Conference on Interoperability in Training Simulation (Elecsim 1996) is available
through e-mail list server, ftp, and the Web. This is the third year this event has been held and
will begin on April 8, 1996. Refereed papers are studied and discussed according to the
conference schedule in much the same way papers are scheduled at traditional conferences.
Elecsim 1996 includes plans for a virtual exhibit hall featuring applications of the Virtual Reality
Modeling Language and Distributed Interactive Simulation.
Web Page: http://www.mystech.com/~smithr/elecsim.html
There are a few Internet sites where you can run a real simulation through your Web browser.
Paul Fishwick at the University of Florida has a computer CPU disk usage simulation written
with the SimPack toolkit. Users set the inputs to the simulation, submit them to the program,
and within a few seconds receive a graphical output of the results of the simulation. There is also
a pointer at this site to a GPSS/H simulation in Germany which represents the capacity of an
indoor swimming pool.
Web Page: http://www.cis.ufl.edu/~fishwick/CPUDisk
Related Events
The ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS) is adding an new
focus area - Distributed Simulation. The area editor is Paul Reynolds of the University of
Virginia. This will expand TOMACS papers to include those dealing with the application of
distributed simulation to interactive training, test, evaluation, and engineering analysis.
Fundamental research issues in this area include time management, variable resolution modeling,
semantic models, communications and computational latency management, interoperability,
object management, data visualization, system survivability, multi-level security, and software
reuse.
Web Page:http://www.acm.org/pubs/tomacs
In support of ACM's 50th anniversary celebration SIGSIM is planning a special issue of
Simulation Digest that focuses on the theme "The 100-Year Journey in Computing: A
Simulation Perspective". For this issue we would like to publish papers and news items that
discuss the potential future of simulation over the next 50 years, or that highlight significant
accomplishments over the last 50 years. A more specific
Call for Papers can be found in this issue of Simulation
Digest.
Contact: Dana Wyatt, dana@ponder.csci.unt.edu
SIGSIM would like to have an attractive logo for use on conference announcements,
publications, and marketing materials. We are seeking designs from members who are
artistically inclined. These may be submitted on paper or as electronic files in a standard format
(GIF, CGM, PIC, JPEG, etc.).
Contact: Ashvin Radiya, radiya@austin.ibm.com