Workshop on Research Directions in Simulation-Based Engineering and Science, held Spring 2009

该奖项的研究目标是确定并批判性地评估基于仿真的工程和科学领域中最有前途的研究领域和研究主题。在一个研讨会上，将从该领域的一些全国领先研究人员那里收集想法和数据。这些结果将由最近完成的一项先前研究报告的结果补充，该研究收集了国外59个领先实验室的类似数据。可交付的成果包括：在4月22日的会议上以合订本的形式提供会议记录报告；在所有与会者完成演讲后，在网络上发布更新版本；在所有编辑工作完成后，在研讨会结果的最终综合报告的草稿版本；会议记录和最终报告将在网上保存至少五年。这项研究的结果将使研究人员和研究经理能够将他们的努力集中在：(1)需要最多的工作来克服进步的障碍，(2)提供最大的进步潜力的领域。这种方法正在成为科学和工程研究中长期建立的数学和实验方法的平等伙伴。更强大的计算机以可承受的成本出现，以及最近软件算法的量子改进，使研究人员能够使用模拟和建模技术来研究以前从未处理过的问题。新的模拟技术使研究人员能够探索材料，生物医学，能源，环境和许多其他领域的情况，这些领域提供了大大改进预测的承诺。应用领域的例子包括全球变暖、地震、海啸、火山爆发、恐怖袭击及其后果、纳米技术安全、金融危机以及许多其他领域——几乎任何事情都可以建模和模拟并获得有用的结果。此外，这门新兴学科提供了吸引年轻人进入科学和工程领域的手段，因为它广泛应用于重要但容易理解的情况，它有吸引力的可视化输出，甚至对初学者也很容易理解。

The research objective of this award is to identify and critically evaluate the most promising research areas and research themes in the field of simulation-based engineering and science. Ideas and data will be gathered in a workshop from some of the nation's leading researchers in the field. These will be supplemented by the results from a recently completed report from a predecessor study, which gathered similar data from 59 leading labs abroad. Deliverables include a conference proceedings report to be available as a bound volume at the meeting on April 22, an updated version posed on the Web when all presentations are finalized by the participants, a draft version of a final synthesis report of the workshop findings, and a bound volume of the final report when all editing has been completed. Both the proceedings and final report will be maintained on the Web for at least five years.The results of this research will enable researchers and research managers to focus their efforts on the areas: (1) that need the most work to overcome barriers to progress, and (2) that offer the greatest potential for progress. This methodology is emerging as an equal partner to the long established mathematical and experimental methodologies for scientific and engineering investigation. The advent of vastly more powerful computers at affordable costs, and recent quantum improvements in software algorithms allow researchers to use simulation and modeling techniques to investigate problems that were never tractable before. New simulation techniques allow the researcher to explore situations in materials, biomedical, energy, the environment, and many other domains that offer the promise of greatly improved predictions. Examples of application areas include global warming, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, terrorist attacks and their aftermath, nanotechnology safety, financial crises, and many others --almost anything can be modeled and simulated with useful results. Further, this emerging discipline offers means of attracting young people into science and engineering because of its wide application to important, but easily understood, situations, its attractive visualization outputs, and its accessibility to even beginning students.