Modeling and simulation are essential methods that are applied in versatile areas, such as computer science, engineering, natural science, medicine, and social science. Depending on the system to be studied and the objective of the simulation study different methods are used for modeling, executing the model, and for analyzing results and steering the experiment. Our group, as part of the Institute for Visual and Analytic Computing (VAC), focuses on the development of methods for modeling and simulation. Of particular interest in our research are:

• Discrete event formalism/languages particularly for multi-level and spatial modeling
• Parallel, distributed, and sequential simulation algorithms
• Flexible and reusable approaches for modeling, executing a model, and entire simulation studies
• Reliability of simulation results
• Intelligent support for simulation studies
• Performance evaluation of simulation techniques

Our work involves methodological approaches as well as the development and implementation of concrete tools. The work is propelled by and addresses challenges entailed by different application domains of M&S, such as computer science, demography, cell biology, and ecology.