Simulation Software: The Modern Seer In Data Analysis
Screening through our nursery textbooks, we all probably might have come across a saying which teaches us to nip the flu in the bud rather than being extremely ill for days. The saying is of course, “Prevention is better than Cure.”
This childhood pedagogy is something which has sublimated itself in the form of idea of ‘Simulation Software’.
Image source: Google
The need of simulation software was first felt during World War II when two mathematicians John von Neumann and Stanislaw Ulam had to confront certain complications in the behavior of neutrons.
The preliminary methods of trial and error were neither economic nor were they easy enough to be applied for analytical purposes. To counter these difficulties, the mathematicians came up with a technique called ‘The Roulette Wheel’ wherein the basic information regarding the occurrence of different events being known, the probabilities of discrete events could be incorporated to ultimately predict the results of the entire series of occurrences. Since then the application and consequently the demand of simulation software has increased exponentially.
An image showing Roulette geeks’ very own simulator which allows users to see the exact probabilities
Simulation is basically the process of creating a prototype of the operation, even before its inception, through computer programs. It is used when we cannot afford wrong execution and jeopardize our entire project such as in the case of nuclear reactors, chemical plants or in aerospace industry. Moreover, simulation has also crept into fields like weather forecasting and modeling of electronic circuits and biological processes.
The growing demand of simulation software is very well corroborated in an Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) research report which states that the projected number of companies using simulation software will go up to 110,000 in the year 2020 from approximately 60,000 in 2018.
Previously, computer aided design applications were used to visualize and design assembly lines and the business process management software stored production data. What simulation software does is that it combines these applications and software together with other systems to carve out a method to more precisely check any changes away from production line.
For instance, in the automobile sector, Toyota Motor Corp and Audi AG rely on a California based start-up, Applied Intuition Inc. Applied Intuition’s software works on the algorithms that are used in autonomous vehicles to manage planning and vehicle control by analyzing numerous real world circumstances that may include traffic, pedestrians, etc. and thereby scrutinizing the shortcomings.
On the medical front, Boston Scientific, a leading producer of medical equipment, uses simulation software to predict the dimensions of bottle necks!
Even in the crucial sector of military and defense, simulation has a pivotal role to play. It is gradually building and simultaneously strengthening its foundations in this sector as is evident by the recent inclusion of MASA’s ‘Surveillance and Warning Obstacle Ranging and Display’, i.e., SWORD into the Spanish army with the prime motive to deal with the cases of command post training, crisis management and disaster response.
Commanding officers in the military, as well as crisis managers in the emergency preparedness sector, can use SWORD to improve training, analysis, and decision support.
‘The latest version of the SWORD software includes new modules for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) events and for response to natural and man-made disasters,’ Brigadier General (retd.) Marc de Fritsch, MASA’s managing director was quoted as saying.
The numerous ways in which data has come to be visualized in these modern times never ceases to amaze me, truly.
Author: Jai Gupta
