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From the reviews:„An approachable, general, yet nontrivial introduction to the broad field of modeling and simulation. … Birta and Arbez have created a well-rounded, general introduction to a very difficult field to enter. The text fills a clear gap in the resources available for introducing this field. The holistic, neutral treatment of a wide variety of topics provides an alternative to the typical modeling and simulation survey course. … Appropriate for an upper-division undergraduate course leading to a concentration in modeling and simulation. It would be equally well suited as a first course in modeling and simulation at the graduate level. … The authors have succeeded in creating a broad, balanced perspective of the modeling and simulation discipline. Readers will gain a refreshingly unified understanding of how simulation springs from conceptual models and context.“ (Thom Mclean, ACM Computing Reviews, December, 2007)
Overview Modelling and simulation is a tool that provides support for the planning, design, and evaluation of systems as well as the evaluation of strategies for system transformation and change. Its importance continues to grow at a remarkable rate, in part because its application is not constrained by discipline boundaries. This growth is also the consequence of the opportunities provided by the ever-widening availability of significant computing resources and the expanding pool of human skill that can effectively harness this computational power. However, the effective use of any tool and especially a multifaceted tool such as modelling and simulation involves a learning curve. This book addresses some of the challenges that lie on the path that ascends that curve. Consistent with good design practice, the development of this textbook began with several clearly defined objectives. Perhaps the most fundamental was the intent that the final product provide a practical (i. e., useful) introduction to the main facets of a typical modelling and simulation project. This objective was, furthermore, to include projects emerging from both the discrete-event and the continuous-time domains. In addition, the work was not to evolve into a treatise on any particular software tool, nor was it to be overly biased towards the statistical notions that play a key role in handling projects from the discrete-event domain.
