[comp.simulation] SIMULATION DIGEST V13 N10

simulation@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu (Moderator: Paul Fishwick) (02/08/90)

Volume: 13, Issue: 10, Wed Feb  7 11:42:16 EST 1990

+----------------+
| TODAY'S TOPICS |
+----------------+

(1) Holography: Information Search
(2) Graphical Modeling & Stella
(3) Request for Proposals: NIPS-90
(4) Re: Cellular Automata
(5) Simulators in Education

* Moderator: Paul Fishwick, Univ. of Florida
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Path: lanl!jwk
From: jwk@lanl.gov (John W. Keller)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.edu,comp.misc,comp.simulation
Subject: HOLOGRAPHY: Information Search
Date: 6 Feb 90 17:55:10 GMT
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory


I am looking for information or research on HOLOGRAPHY. 
At this point I have no specific direction or focus of interest
so any information at all would be appreciated.

Please e-mail me any information that you have and I will post
or send a compilation to anyone who is interested.

Thanks in advance.

John Keller

******************************************************************
John Keller			Staff Reasearch Assistant
LANL, MS M997			Los Alamos National Laboratory
PO Box 1663
Los Alamos, NM 87544		jwk@beta.lanl.gov
******************************************************************
As usual, my opinions are my own.
***********************************



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Return-Path: <samuels@community-chest.mitre.org>
To: simulation@bikini.cis.ufl.edu
Cc: samuels@community-chest.mitre.org
Subject: Re: SIMULATION DIGEST V13 N9 
In-Reply-To: Your message of 05 Feb 90 15:49:33 +0000.
             <22099@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> 
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 90 14:37:45 -0500
From: Michael L. Samuels <samuels@community-chest.mitre.org>

--------
Summary of message- 

>Jerry Pournelle has a small monthly column in Byte Magazine called
>"Chaos Manor." Many of you have probably read it if you get Byte. In a
>recent article he reviews a simulation game program called Sim City. I
>will take a small excerpt from his c>olumn and then add my two cents
>worth...

>(excerpt...)
>...One of the best things such programs could do would be to let the
>students know what the inner relationships are. I don't know of any
>programs that let you fiddle with the equations inside the model, but
>I think that might be one heck of an educational tool....."
---------
This is one of the big advantages of Stella for the Mac.  You
create models of systems using a palette of modeling tools -
just like MacDraw.  Tools include flows, stores, and convertors.
Equations are automatically built as you draw the picture of the
system.  You then go into the equation window and examine the
details of your picture.  I have been using Stella to look at
various forms of the logistic equation - partly to help me
understand chaotic processes, and partly to examine different
forms of the logistic.  What I really like about Stella over a
tool like SimCity is that I have a lot of control over the
model's dynamics.  I cannot create models as complex as SimCity,
perhaps, but the real value of simulation exercises is in the
building of the model - that's where you learn about the
relationships among key variables.   My only wish is that
discrete-event simulations were as easy to construct!

Michael Samuels 			The MITRE Corporation
samuels@community-chest.mitre.org	Mailstop Z676
(703) 883-7828 				7525 Colshire Drive
FAX: (703) 883-5519			McLean, VA 22102    



------------------------------

Date: Tue, 6 Feb 90 18:28:54 EST
From: jose@neuron.siemens.com (Steve Hanson)
To: Connectionists@RI.CMU.EDU, TheoryNet@ibm.com, ai-chi@lll-lcc.llnl.gov,
        ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu, arpanet-bboards@mc.lcs.mit.edu,
        biotech%umdc.bitnet@siemens.siemens.com, comp-ai@ucbvax.berkeley.edu,
        dynsys-l%uncvm1.bitnet@siemens.siemens.com,
        epsynet%uhupvm1.bitnet@siemens.siemens.com, fj-ai%etl.jp@relay.cs.net,
        fox@vtcs1.cs.vt.edu, gs@xp.psych.nyu.edu, hecht@ztivax.siemens.com,
        human-nets@aramis.rutgers.edu, info-futures@cs.bu.edu,
        iss@cadillac.siemens.com, jws@ib.rl.ac.uk,
        mcmi!denny@siemens.siemens.com, mcvax!swivax!otten@uunet.uu.net,
        ming@demon.siemens.com, unido!mod-ki%gmdzi@siemens.siemens.com,
        msgs@clarity.princeton.edu, msgs@neuron.siemens.com,
        neuron@hplabs.hp.com, nlist@bellcore.com, nnsc@nnsc.nsf.net,
        optics-l%taunivm.bitnet@siemens.siemens.com,
        parsym@sumex-aim.stanford.edu, physics@mc.lcs.mit.edu,
        regine@ztivax.siemens.com, remmele@ztivax.siemens.com,
        self-org@mc.lcs.mit.edu, simulation@ufl.edu,
        soft-eng@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu, ue@ztivax.siemens.com,
        vision-list@ads.com, zercher@ztivax.siemens.com
Subject: NIPS-90 WORKSHOPS Call for Proposals



                           REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
                     NIPS-90 Post-Conference Workshops
                     November 30 and December 1, 1990


       Following the regular NIPS program, workshops on  current  topics
       on  Neural Information Processing will be held on November 30 and
       December 1, 1990, at a ski  resort  near  Denver.   Proposals  by
       qualified   individuals   interested  in  chairing  on  of  these
       workshops are solicited.

       Past topics  have  included:   Rules  and  Connectionist  Models;
          Speech;    Vision;   Neural   Network   Dynamics;   Neurobiology;
          Computational  Complexity  Issues;  Fault  Tolerance  in   Neural
          Networks; Benchmarking and Comparing Neural Network Applications;
          Architectural Issues; Fast Training  Techniques;  VLSI;  Control;
          Optimization, Statistical Inference, Genetic Algorithms.

       The format of the workshop is informal.  Beyond reporting on past
          research,  their  goal  is  to  provide  a  forum  for scientists
          actively working in the field to freely discuss current issues of
          concern  and  interest.  Sessions will meet in the morning and in
          the afternoon of both days, with free time  in  between  for  the
          ongoing individual exchange or outdoor activities.  Specific open
          or controversial issues are encouraged and preferred as  workshop
          topics.   Individuals  interested  in  chairing   a workshop must
          propose a topic of current interest and must be willing to accept
          responsibility for their group's discussion.  Discussion leaders'
          responsibilities include:  arrange brief  informal  presentations
          by   experts   working  on  this  topic,  moderate  or  lead  the
          discussion, and report its high points, findings and  conclusions
          to  the  group during evening plenary sessions, and in a short (2
          page) summary.

       Submission Procedure:  Interested parties should submit  a  short
          proposal  for  a workshop of interest by May 17, 1990.  Proposals
          should include a title  and  a  short  description  of  what  the
          workshop  is  to address and accomplish.  It should state why the
          topic is of interest or controversial, why it should be discussed
          and  what  the  targeted  group of participants is.  In addition,
          please send a brief resume of  the  prospective  workshop  chair,
          list  of publications and evidence of scholarship in the field of
          interest.

       Mail submissions to:
               Dr. Alex Waibel
               Attn: NIPS90 Workshops
               School of Computer Science
               Carnegie Mellon University
               Pittsburgh, PA 15213

          Name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail net address 
	  (if applicable) must be on all submissions.

      Workshop Organizing Committee:

          Alex Waibel, Carnegie-Mellon, Workshop Chairman;
          Kathie Hibbard, University of Colorado, NIPS Local Arrangements;
          Howard Watchel, University of Colorado, Workshop Local Arrangements;

              PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY MAY 17,1990
                             Please Post



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Posted-Date: Wed, 7 Feb 90 10:00:21 CST
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 90 10:00:21 CST
From: steve@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (Steve Glicker)
To: nelson_p@apollo.com, simulation@ufl.edu
Subject: Cellular Automata

This in response to Peter's question on Cellular Automata from
V13 N9 of the digest.

First of all, I've been curious about Autodesk's CA lab too.  The
limitations you mentioned sound most unfortunate, but I am glad that
you shared them.

You had a question about moving things between cells,
    
>    But when stuff moves between cells "collisions" may occur.  The
                    ^^^^^
> ...
>    -------------------------
>    |1    |2    |3    |4    |
>    |     |     |     |     |       Say A (in cell 5) and B (in cell 7)
>    |     |     |     |     |       are both moving toward cell 6 at
>    -------------------------       time T.    If I just compute the
>    |5    |6    |7    |8    |       state for time T+1 *sequentially*
>    | A-->|     |<--B |     |       then when I get to cell 5 I can't
>    |     |     |     |     |       determine its state for time T+1 
>     -------------------------      without knowing whether it was 
>    |9    |10   |11   |12   |       successful in its attempt to move
>    |     |     |     |     |       into cell 6.   But the state of
>    |     |     |     |     |       cell 6 for time T+1 is not known  
>    -------------------------       yet, and it is also a function of
>                                    7 which I haven't evaluated yet.  

It seems to me that you would like cells to know something about what
their neighbors are doing in stead of moving stuff around.  Clearly,
data is moved when every time you see a change in Conway's life game
and if cells do know what their neighbors are doing (or are dependent
on their neighbors actions) they are not acting like automata -- not
that there is anything wrong with that, they just arn't automata.

John VonNewmann was working with something similar in which the state
of an automata (I think his automata had 29 states in stead of two)
was directly related to the way the automata functions.  He was
working on programming them and eventually developing a mechanism
which would reproduce, like a biological virus.

	Burk ed., VonNewmann, (1966).  "Theory of Self-Reproducing
	Automata," University of Illinois Press, Urbana.

There has been work in this area since.

You mentioned interest in some references on CA and specifically to
Fluid Dynamics.  Chapter 16 of the CA book referenced below is on
Fluid Dynamics.

	Tommaso Toffoli, Morman Margolus (1987).  "Cellular Automata
	Machines: A new Environment for Modeling", The MIT Press.

This text covers many areas.  I am only through the first few chapters
so far it's very good.

-steve
(steve@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu)




------------------------------

Posted-Date: Wed, 7 Feb 90 09:42:47 CST
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 90 09:42:47 CST
From: steve@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (Steve Glicker)
To: simulation@ufl.edu
Subject: Gaming, Simulation and Face Validity

In response to Paul Fishwick's article on Gaming, Simulation and Face
Validity,

On the related topic of simulators in education...

In my search for professional organization for simulation, I came
across an organization called CONDUIT which deals with educational
software (including simulators).  An excerpt from their catalog reads,

	Our role is analogous to that of a university press, except
	that we publish in an electronic medium and work only with
	educational materials.  We are not a clearing house.  We
	subject all submissions to a rigorous review process
	involving content consultants and our in-house technical staff.

Their software index is organized as follows.  The (S)'s indicate that
they appear to have one or more simulators in the category.

	Economics (S)
	English
	Foreign Languages
	Mathematics
	Music
	Science
	  Biology (S)
	  Chemistry (S)
	  Physics (S)
	Political Science (S)
	Psychology (S)
	Research Methods
	Scientific Method
	Sociology

For information they list:

	Telephone:	1-800-365-9774
	Bitnet:		AWCCONPA@UIAMVS
	US Mail:	CONDUIT
			The University of Iowa
			Oakdale Camus
			Iowa City, Iowa 52242

-steve
(steve@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu)



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END OF SIMULATION DIGEST
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