Edward E. E. Frietman
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Sunday, July 16     8:00am–12:00pm      Cost $200

Scientists all over the world agree that the 21 st century will see a major breakthrough in exploring new technologies in various areas of science. Already in 1993 Kenneth Wilson, former Nobel physicist, prognosticated the importance of grand challenges for the next century. In a report associated with the high performance and communications phenomena, a list of subjects was published that referred to simulations with regard to the design of new drugs and protein structures, to studies on the behaviour of ozone depletion, to the origination of air and water pollution, and to the prediction of a 12-hour weather forecast. In achieving this, a parallel processing and networking platform is required that performs at processing speeds of trillions of operations per second, the results of which are successively distributed among computing nodes at speeds exceeding terabits per second data-throughput rates, and next stored in terabytes-sized memories. Starting as an idea at Delft University of Technology in 1985, which is now further elaborated upon at the College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology at California State University, Chico, a more or less radical approach was introduced in designing an optically interconnected parallel computing system in which every node talks to every other node all the time, with no switching required at all. Although it is still far from being in a position to be prototyped, it is our sincere believe that it is worthwhile to pursue a fully connected architecture, because all other existing network topologies are just subsets of it. This is of crucial importance if we are to come up to expectations where data throughput rates of terabits per second are realized. In considering an exploration of the use of optical interconnections, only a system-to-device approach will survive. Moreover, in maintaining properties of optics-inherent parallelism to the farthest end (in this case the electronics within a node), a combination of an optical data distributor and a class of photonic integrated circuits (PIC?s) has to be designed that distribute, fetch and store that data in one blow. The beauty of optical processing and connectivity: data travels from a source node to a destination node at the speed of light without encountering bottlenecks of any kind.

Edward E. E. Frietman received his BSEE, MSEE and PhD degrees from Delft University of Technology (DUT) at Delft in The Netherlands. Currently he is a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Applied Sciences at DUT, where his research activities are focused on computer architectures, optical interconnect technologies for massively parallel processors, and semiconductor technologies for opto-electronic integrated circuits.

PDS #2: VERIFICATION, VALIDATION AND ACCREDITATION OF MODELS AND SIMULATIONS

Bob Gravitz
Aegis Technologies Group.

Sunday, July 16     1:00pm–5:00pm      Cost $200

In this practical Verification, Validation, and Accreditation course, you will gain the knowledge necessary to ensure your M&S data are accurate. The goal of this course is to prepare you to make an informed and independent judgment about the credibility of models and simulations being used in the program or project of interest to you. You'll also gain a working knowledge of the activities required to certify a simulation as credible for a specific application. Other important subject matter includes the following: the M&S VV&A process and its relationship to various M&S applications; fundamentals and techniques for performing M&S VV&A and guidance to help the trainee determine which techniques are most useful for certain application types; the accreditation process and the work that must be accomplished to reach a sound decision about the suitability of M&S for particular applications; planning for and implementing the accreditation process and how to integrate V&V into the process; validation planning and reporting. Your successful implementation of VV&A is of undeniable value to your organization. Your organization may save time and money, reduce risk, and have a greater certainty that the M&S environment is performing as required through implementation of formal M&S VV&A processes. Value to attendees: This timely and topical course is intended to aid decision makers in ensuring the quality of their modeling and simulation environment. Leveraging its extensive training experience in High Level Architecture, and using Department of Defense VV&A guidance coupled with industry best practices, AEgis has developed this multimedia training course to address many of the questions that arise when M&S are used in critical applications. This tutorial uses state-of- the-art, computer-based multimedia presentations to illustrate M&S VV&A in an easy-to- understand manner. Each multimedia presentation is followed by discussions to encourage communications and facilitate the exchange of information of most value to the participants. Participants will be provided a Student Guide and CD-ROM which encapsulates all the material presented in the tutorial.

Bob Gravitz has nearly 20 years of experience in the fields of research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) of major DoD weapon programs, and his focus has been the application of M&S to weapon systems development and testing. He has current, hands-on experience with the National Missile Defense (NMD) Program and the Theater Missile Defense (TMD) Family of Systems (FoS) and serves as the Director of the Systems Engineering and Evaluation Technology Group of The AEgis Technologies Group.

PDS #3: IMPROVED SOFTWARE TESTING WITH THE USE OF METRICS

Alfred Sorkowitz
Department of the Navy

Sunday, July 16     1:00pm–5:00pm      Cost $200

Software Metrics can aid in improving your organization?s testing process by (1) providing insight and early visibility into the ?real? status of the testing effort, (2) aiding in making assessments as to whether progress, productivity and quality goals are being met. This tutorial presents a practical guide on how to start taking advantage of these new tools/techniques to aid in improving the testing process. These metric-based tools and techniques have successfully been used by (1) software test teams, (2) software developers and, (3) SQA/IV&V staffs. This tutorial and practical overview is designed for technical and managerial professionals concerned with improving quality, performance and productivity of the software testing phase.

Alfred Sorkowitz is a Computer Scientist with the Department of the Navy, and is actively involved in utilizing software engineering principles to develop large software-based systems.

PDS #4: OVERVIEW OF THE SPEEDES FRAMEWORK

Jeffrey S. Steinman
RAM Laboratories

Thursday, July 20     9:00am–5:00pm      Cost $200

Jeffrey S. Steinman, Vice President and Director of Technology with RAM Laboratories, received his PhD in High-Energy Physics from UCLA in 1988. From 1988-1995, Dr. Steinman worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he developed the SPEEDES operating system. This work resulted in more than 30 publications in the area of high-performance simulation, and four patent awards. He has provided technical support for several large-scale DoD projects including JSIMS, JWARS, JMASS, Wargame 2000, NSS, EADTB, and the SPEEDES-based HPC-HLA-RTI development effort. Dr. Steinman is currently the Technical Director for the SPEEDES simulation engine upgrades in support of JSIMS.

SPEEDES is currently being used by several large distributed DoD simulation programs including JSIMS, JMASS, Wargame 2000, and EADTB. SPEEDES is also being extended to provide a High-Level Architecture (HLA) Run-Time Infrastructure (RTI) on High-Performance Computers. This tutorial discusses the following topics:

1. Principles of Optimistic Time Management
2. Internal Design of SPEEDES
3. SPEEDES Modeling Framework
4. Federation Objects
5. Interoperability and Support for HLA

Upon completion of this tutorial, attendees will have a firm grasp of how optimistic time management works. Attendees will also gain basic understanding of SPEEDES capabilities and how it is used to support parallel and distributed simulation models.

PDS #5: CREATING DISTRIBUTED SIMULATIONS: THE DEVS, HLA, CORBA TRIAD

Bernard P. Zeigler
Hessam S. Sarjoughian
University of Arizona

Sunday, July 16     9:00am–4:00pm
The tutorial has two parts. Cost is as follows:
Part 1 - $125
Part 2 - $125
Parts 1 & 2 - $200

The US Department of Defense and NATO are promoting the High Level Architecture (HLA) standard for distributed simulation, focusing on interoperabillity of existing geographically dispersed simulation assets. However, non-DoD applications of distributed modeling and simulation, such as in distributed business enterprises and e-commerce, are becoming increasingly important as complexity increases and lead times diminish. Moreover, some of the difficulties faced in creating distributed modeling and simulation environments are not addressed by the HLA prescriptions and run-time infrastructure. CORBA is a widely accepted middleware to support distributed software systems and offers complementary services to those of HLA. This tutorial is oriented to those tasked with developing modeling and simulation infrastructures and who want to gain a better understanding of the options available to them. The presentation is based on the Discrete-Event System Specification (DEVS) which is an increasingly accepted framework for understanding and supporting the activities of modeling and simulation. Examples of industrial-strength environments that have been implemented in using the DEVS framework with either HLA or CORBA are also reviewed. The tutorial consists of two parts.

Part 1: (9:30am–12:00pm) The DEVS Framework is oriented to those unfamiliar with DEVS and its comprehensive view of modeling and simulation–model developers, users of simulation tools, distributed simulation managers and developers. This part is prerequisite to Part 2, but may be skipped by those who are knowledgeable with the DEVS Framework.

Part 2: (1:30pm–4:00pm) The DEVS, HLA, CORBA Triad will be of interest to those who want to gain an appreciation for the possibilities, problems and solutions available in developing distributed simulation infrastructures–managers and developers, and DoD and civilian infrastructure investment decision makers.

Bernard P. Zeigler, University of Arizona, has made fundamental contributions to modeling and simulation, is a Fellow of the IEEE, and recently received the SCS McLeod Founders Award.

Hessam S. Sarjoughian, University of Arizona, is an Assistant Research Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and has developed software and course materials to support DEVS methodology using advanced distributed software technologies.

PDS #6: INTRODUCTION TO THE HIGH LEVEL ARCHITECTURE (HLA) AND SUPPORTING PROCESSES/TOOLS

Michael Lightner
Aegis Technologies Group
Jake Borah
Joint Simulation System Program Office
Tracie McGuire

Thursday, July 20     8:00am–12:00pm      Cost $200

This tutorial is being given in two parts. The first section will provide a comprehensive introduction to the US Defense Department High Level Architecture (HLA) for Simulation. It is designed primarily for those who are unfamiliar with the HLA, but may also be useful for those who desire a refresher on basic aspects of the HLA. The first segment includes an overview of the motivations for HLA development, including HLA goals, policy, and development process. The next segment offers descriptions of the latest versions of the three components of the HLA definition: the HLA Rules, the HLA Interface Specification and the HLA Object Model Template (OMT). A third segment offers a look at the nature and scope of the HLA services made available by DMSO and being used internationally. The tutorial will conclude with a 22-minute video featuring US Defense Department personnel speaking to specific real-world problems being addressed by distributed simulation, and how HLA is being employed in solving those problems.

The second section of the tutorial will focus on the HLA Federation Development and Execution Process (FEDEP) Model. The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce users and developers of distributed simulation applications to the set of activities that are necessary to build HLA federations, and to the interrelationships between these activities. This tutorial also provides an introduction to the HLA Tool Architecture, and illustrates how both commercial and DMSO-sponsored tools may be used to automate many different aspects of federation development. Finally, information will be provided as to where and how to gain access to HLA support tools, and how the HLA user community can actively participate in the continued evolution of the HLA FEDEP.

Michael Lightner is the Technology Group Leader for the Simulation Technologies Group at AEgis Research Corporation. He is also currently serving as the Project Manager for the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO) High Level Architecture (HLA) Integrated Training Program.

Jake Borah has been associated with the Joint Simulation System (JSIMS) from the origination of the Joint Program Office. He was a member of the JSIMS Joint Mission Space Model modeling team that was a DMSO-sponsored initiative in conceptual modeling. He also supported the HLA Object Model Template Working Group and the Joint Training Federation prototype project.

Tracie McGuire is a graduate of the United States Military Academy School of Music. After her service in the United States Army, she worked on numerous DOD contracts as a software developer.

PDS #7: ADAPTING YOUR SIMULATION TO USE HLA

David McGuire
Tracie McGuire

Thursday, July 20     1:00pm–5:00pm      Cost $200

This tutorial will aid in planning the adaptation of legacy simulations to use HLA, and will be presented in three modules. The first module is designed to help analysts plan for HLA implementation. It provides guidance on how to design your first SOM and then describes how to identify which RTI services your simulation requires. The second module focuses on software implementation issues that arise when adapting a simulation to use HLA. Interoperability topics discussed include: time management, two-way interfaces, modularity, automating exception handling, and data representation. The third module is a case study which demonstrates how the Naval Simulation System applied the ideas presented in the earlier modules. The overall approach presented here can be used to adapt other simulations for HLA use as well.

David McGuire is a Senior Software Engineer who has been working in the modeling and simulation industry for 12 years. He has helped develop a commercial modeling and simulation architecture as well as build new simulations and integrate existing ones. He is experienced with the HLA Federation Development and Execution Process (FEDEP), as he used the process during an effort to integrate distributed virtual flight simulators. He has also conducted evaluations of various RTIs to determine their suitability to various integration efforts he has been involved in.

Tracie McGuire is a graduate of the United States Military Academy School of Music. After her service in the United States Army, she worked on numerous DOD contracts as a software developer. In addition, she provided training on the products as well as technical support. She has won numerous public speaking awards, currently is a member of the SISO organization and is actively supporting HLA training as well as training on HLA LabWorks.

PDS #8: SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS WITH ACSL

Joseph S. Gauthier
AEgis Technologies Group

Sunday, July 16     8:00am–12:00pm      Cost $200

An overview of the ACSL family of simulation software products: the Advanced Continuous Simulation Language (ACSL); the ACSL Graphic Modeller for creating and maintaining simulations using a graphical interface; ACSL Math for analysis and visualization of simulated time history data; and ACSL Optimize for optimization and parameter estimation of ACSL simulations. A simple case study will trace the application of each product. Tutorial registration includes a free trial of the software products on a PC.