Liophant Simulation Club is Ready For The Millennium Of Simulation

The beginning of a new millennium means for Liophant Simulation Club (LSC), Chapter of Society for Computer Simulation International, a great opportunity to make everyone see how simulation could be more and more useful in an increasing number of application fields. To spread simulation and enlarge its use all over the world, LSC has started a series of innovative projects that involve now old and new partners.
One of the first new initiatives of LSC, in Cooperation with DIP, Genoa University (Italy), was to create a network of people interested in simulation for industry, exchanging information, news & material and establishing a common baseline for simulation studies and future standards.
This project began in May 2000 with the first SIREN (Simulation Report & Networking) Meeting, with more than 60 attendees coming from Academy, Industry, Governments, Institutions, Research Centres.
One of the incoming needs of Italian audience was noticed to be a more detailed vision on the principles of simulation.
So, Liophant and DIP with the collaboration of McLeod Institute for Simulation Sciences, organised a series of three–days courses on Modelling & Simulation, each one with different topics, such as M&S Basis, High Level Architecture, Verification, Validation and Analysis, etc.
The attendance was very various, coming from shipbuilding, aerospace industry, retail companies, research centres, local authorities and universities; over 100 people attended the courses held during the last solar year, listening to lectures and experiencing on exercises and case studies.
Teachers came from various affiliations: DIP, that has experienced a long tradition on simulation projects, McLeod Institute of Simulation Sciences, Boston College, NASA, NCS (with whom Liophant has a Cooperation Agreement), DMSO, Aegis Technologies, California State University, University of Central Florida, Riga Technical University and so on.

Now Liophant is going to start a new series of such courses, introducing also some new topics such as Simulation to Manage & Control ERP Systems, Simulation Project Management, Simulation For Logistics.
Meanwhile, the SIREN Network developed to more than 100 persons and will be present in Turin during the conference Virtuality 2001.
But another conference in the simulation field is very important for LSC: yearly the Club and its partner DIP organise together the event HMS (Harbour, Maritime & Multimodal Logistics Modelling & Simulation).
In 1999 it was held in Genoa and in 2000 it took place in the wonderful frame of Portofino.
This year HMS will be in Marseille, France, in cooperation with LSIS/DIAM – IUSPIM Engineering School, and in 2002 will come back to Italian Riviera.
Liophant is proud to make possible each year this great event that allows simulation experts from all over the world to meet and present their own works and researches in the field of logistics.
The other aim of LSC is to allow students and young researchers interested in simulation to go abroad and work on concrete projects with experts both of the Industrial and both Academic world, or to participate to international conferences an events.
This year some Liophant Members have been able to participate to conferences and Stages in Innsbruck, Salzburg, Prague, Orlando, Dublin, Montreal and Detroit.

But one of the greatest opportunities in this field was the approval of the IEPAL Project, that Liophant & DIP have started in cooperation with Boston College, NCS, Stevens Institute, Bradley University, DIAM – IUSPIM, University of Magdeburg and CFLI.

IEPAL (Intensive Educational Project in Advanced Logistics) is a project funded by European Community and US Department of Education, that allows students from EC and USA to travel on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
The participants will attend innovative Courses in Logistics and Simulation within Academic partners and they will get industrial experience by the stages organised by the Industrial Consortiums.
LSC is also involved as supporting partners in another Simulation Project: WILD (Web Integrated Logistics Designer), an HLA tool for the management of a very complex project with many sub contractors geographically distributed: the construction of a series of small executive airplanes.
This project, financed by Italian Ministry of Research and University, involves DIP and other Universities: such as Bari, L'Aquila, Milan, Naples, Florence, Salerno.
Other Projects are in course of development with other partners, such as projects for remote education in Information Technologies for Logistics; meanwhile the number of Liophanters increases all over the world if really we are entering the Age of Simulation, LSC is ready!
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