System theoretic foundations of modeling and simulation: a historic perspective and the legacy of A Wayne Wymore

Abstract

AW Wymore, the founder of the world’s first systems engineering department at the University of Arizona, has been at the origin of the system theoretic foundations of modeling and simulation. Wymore’s intellectual family tree, which goes back to Gauss and Weierstrass, is given. How the authors met, cooperated, and advocated system theory for the advancement of modeling and simulation are explained. The concept of model-based simulation was also one of the outcomes of this cooperation. This article reviews the emergence of systems-theory-based modeling and simulation languages and environments, such as the General System Theory implementor and Discrete Event System Specification, and their relation to Wymore’s concepts. We also discuss the application of powerful software development frameworks to support user-friendly access to systems concepts and to increase the power to support systems design and engineering.