Debugging Simulation Models CS 780 Spring 2007 Instructor: Peter Kemper Dept of Computer Science, College of William and Mary Prerequisites: A first course on simulation is recommended (or permission of the instructor)

CS 780: Debugging Simulation Models What if your favorite simulation model provides numbers you cannot explain? –A groundbraking observation -> New insight ? –An error ? In your modeling, your coding, in the simulator lib ? In your investigations, you get in touch with –Validation, Verification and Debugging issues –Trace Analysis, Statistics, Modelchecking, … and many more applied cool techniques to get more insight in what really happens in your simulation. Learn more about it in CS 780 in Spring 2007.

Validation vs Verification Validation: –concerned with building the right model. –utilized to determine that a model is an accurate representation of the real system. Verification: –concerned with building the model right. –utilized in comparison of the conceptual model to the computer representation that implements that conception. Verification asks questions like: –Is the model implemented correctly in the computer? –Are input parameters and logical structure of the model correctly represented? –Are measures appropriately defined? Occassionally one also reads in literature –“ verify (debug) the computer program ”, –“… the model has been validated and verified (i.e., that the model computer program has been debugged) ”