ICECCS 2010 Special Session: Complex Systems Modelling and Simulation

25 March 2010

St. Anne's College, Oxford, UK

iceccs@cosmos-research.org

This special session of ICECCS 2010 aims to provide a forum for research examining the engineering of complex systems. Complex systems are characterised by low-level components that communicate and interact in and with and within an environment, exhibiting high-level (emergent) behaviours. For example, natural complex systems that inspire engineering solutions might be swarms (natural, robots, UAVs) or ants (path finding, optimisation). Complex systems are modelled and simulated to try to understand behaviours: for instance, stock markets, social systems, predator-prey systems, spin glasses, simple liquid crystals. Finally, systems such as cellular automata provide an implementation platform for some forms of complex system. The special session concerns the engineering of such complex systems. Engineering covers, amongst other aspects, abstract modelling in diagrams or mathematics, computer simulation, verification and validation, and engineering environments.

Engineering complex systems is a challenging and interdisciplinary task. Elements might include choice of modelling tools and techniques, simulation infrastructures, concurrency and distribution, the process of moving from models to simulations, arguing validity of simulations, and the identification of reusable engineering techniques such as patterns.

The Special Session is supported by the EPSRC CoSMoS project, a four-year initiative, based at the Universities of York and Kent, to develop a framework and infrastructure for the construction of of generic complex systems simulations. Accepted papers will appear in the ICECCS proceedings.

*AREAS OF INTEREST*

We are seeking papers on any aspect of engineering complex systems. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

* Abstract modelling and simulation of complex systems to support scientific enquiry or engineering
* Modelling approaches that accommodate treatment of emergent behaviours
* Aspects of complex-system simulation environments, including languages, concurrency, distribution and scalability
* Engineering techniques and tools to support complex-system simulation environments, languages, concurrency and distribution and scalability, in areas such as model-to-code, testing, proof of properties, use of patterns and refactorings
* Techniques for demonstrating the validity, or fitness-for-purpose, of models and simulations

*SUBMISSIONS*

Papers are submitted through the ICECCS conference submission.

Posters are also invited from current PhD students. To contribute a poster, submit a poster paper (below) through the ICECCS conference submission; accepted poster papers will be published in the IEEE proceedings, and posters displayed at the conference. Details are as follows:

Submitted manuscripts should be in English and formatted in the style of the IEEE Computer Society Proceedings Format. Papers should not exceed 10 pages including figures, references, and appendices and be in PDF format. Poster papers should not exceed 2 pages including figures, references, and appendices and be in PDF format. Submissions not adhering to the specified format and length may be rejected immediately, without review.

Submissions of papers and poster papers will be carried out electronically via the web site of the ICECCS Submission Service at

http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iceccs2010

*So that we can keep track of special session papers, please write "CoSMoS Special Session" as one of the paper keywords when submitting and email iceccs@cosmos-research.org stating that you have submitted the paper*

Authors of accepted papers and posters will be required to sign a copyright release form. IEEE Computer Society Press will publish the proceedings. Final versions of accepted papers will be limited to 10 pages in the aforementioned IEEE proceedings format.

*IMPORTANT DATES*

Abstract Submission: 23 October 2009

Paper Submission: 30 October 2009

Notification of acceptance: 18 December 2009

Camera ready copies: 22 January 2010

ICECCS 2010 Conference: 22-26 March 2010

Special session date: 25 March 2010

*SPECIAL SESSION CHAIRS*

Fiona Polack
Paul Andrews
Adam Sampson