Workshop: Towards an Ecosystem of Simulation Models and Data; 5th INFORMS Simulation Society Research Workshop; University of Durham, United Kingdom; July 31 to August 2, 2017

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of this workshop is to bring together researchers and students from the domains of digital simulation and data science to accelerate the concordance of these distinct but overlapping technologies. The ubiquity of data from diverse sources (sensors, social networks, Internet of Things) and evolving data-science technologies for machine learning, visual analytics, and collaborative modeling and analysis present great potential for transforming simulation practice, and both domains are crucial to the understanding and further evolution of data-driven decision support systems. As data become a ubiquitous resource, and simulation models become increasing complex, the simulation community faces major challenges and opportunities in both exploiting available real-world data and in extracting insights from the massive data sets produced from large-scale simulation experiments. The convergence of science from both research communities holds promise for tackling major research questions in both fields, such as overcoming barriers to data-driven, online simulation, assimilating and correcting data from multiple sources, simulation input uncertainty, and incorporating machine learning innovations into simulation. This award will support the participation of graduate students who will become the next generation of leaders in the simulation community. This workshop will be held at the University of Durham in the UK from July 31-August 2, 2017. It is organized by three leading simulation researchers and brings together intellectual leaders from both simulation and data science around such topics as data assimilation, data farming, online data-driven simulations, robust simulation, database technology, metamodeling, machine learning, model calibration, and collaborative modeling and simulation. The workshop organizers have identified eight topic areas, and focused groups of researchers will present and reflect upon emerging research in these areas and identify important directions for future research. The workshop will be broadly promoted through major professional societies such as the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Results will be widely disseminated through a special issue of the ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation.