Because
they can recreate experiences, simulations hold great potential for
training people for almost any situation. Education researchers
have, in fact, determined that people, especially adults, learn
better by experience than through reading or lectures. Simulated
experiences can be just as valuable a training tool as the real
thing.
Simulations are complex,
computer-driven re-creations of the real thing. When used for
training, they must recreate "reality" accurately, otherwise you may
not learn the right way to do a task.
For example, if you try to practice how to
fly in a flight simulator game that does not accurately model
(see definition,
below) the
flight characteristics of an airplane, you will not learn how a
real aircraft responds to your control.
Building simulator games is not easy,
but creating simulations that accurately answer such questions
as "If I do this, what
happens then?" is even more demanding.
Over the years, government and
industry, working independently with new technologies and hardware,
developed a wide range of products and related applications to
improve simulation science.
This independence, however, often led to sporadic or redundant
research efforts.
To benefit from each other’s latest advances,
researchers from across the country needed better communication and,
ideally, a common source of supporting academic studies. The State
of Florida recognized these needs and in 1982 established the
Institute for Simulation and Training at the University
of Central Florida.
What
we do at IST
IST's mission is to advance the
state of the art and science of modeling and simulation by
- performing basic and applied
simulation research
- supporting education in modeling
and simulation and related fields
- serving public and private
simulation communities
We don't produce simulator hardware.
That's a job for industry. But we've successfully developed working
prototype hardware that provides new uses for simulations. We'll
also help develop new applications
for existing hardware, and scientifically test the results using
human factors and other criteria for effective human-machine
interface and learning. Too often overlooked, human factors testing
is crucial to ultimate simulation effectiveness. We're fortunate to
be closely connected, through joint faculty appointments and working
relationships, with one of the top, if not the leading human factors
department in the nation—right here at UCF.
We also explore the frontiers of
simulation science, expanding our knowledge of ways to stimulate the
human senses with advanced optical, audio and haptic technologies.
Still obfuscated? Go
here...
Modeling: a model definition
A computer model, as used in modeling
and simulation science, is a mathematical representation of
something—a person, a building, a vehicle, a tree—any object. A
model also can be a representation of a process—a weather pattern,
traffic flow, air flowing over a wing.
Models are created from a mass of
data, equations and computations that mimic the actions of things
represented. Models usually include a graphical display that
translates all this number crunching into an animation that you can
see on a computer screen or by means of some other visual device.
Models can be simple images of
things—the outer shell, so to speak—or they can be complex, carrying all the characteristics of
the object or process they represent. A complex model will simulate
the actions and reactions of the real thing. To make these models
behave the way they would in real life, accurate,
real-time simulations require fast computers with lots of number
crunching power.
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Three types
of simulations
