Abstract
The lecture gives a broad overview of modeling and simulation from the perspective of computing and control. Vannevar Bush built the mechanical differential analyzer to investigate power systems. Analog computing developed rapidly because of the advances in electronics. It was widely used in industry and academia by the 1950s. The initial efforts to exploit digital computing for simulation were based on emulation of analog computers. The tedious effort to go from physics to a working analog simulation was simplified significantly by introducing modeling languages. Languages were first developed for specific areas and later extended to broader physical domains. The idea was to describe the physics in its basic form, to use object orientation for structuring, symbolic and numeric computing to transform the model to code for optimization and simulation. Significant contributions were given by European researchers leading to the development of the Modelica language in the late 1990s. Today modeling and simulation are indispensable tools for developing complex engineering systems. They are widely used in the automotive and the aerospace industries. Although much progress has been made there are still no complete tool chains for developing complex engineering systems; starting with requirements and ending with a finished product. The development of components of such tool chains, which permit safe design of complex systems, is a great challenge.
