MODSIM WORLD Canada

Modeling and Simulation has a profound effect on the worlds capability to explore space, model new drugs and model and teach new medical procedures, build next generation airplanes and ships. The solutions we develop involves scientists, educators, multimedia and 2d and 3d specialists. Our event celebrates the achievements of our peers and allows Canadian Companies to present their capabilities on a world stage.

MODSIM World Canada’s goal is to encourage international collaboration and cross-discipline transfer of technology. We are focusing the international spotlight on Canadian businesses, universities and research labs that can either lead M&S projects or partner with larger enterprises. M&S companies from throughout Canada will be in attendance. This is an important initiative to more tightly integrate Canada into the high-tech corridor that runs from Orlando through Norfolk, Washington, New York and Boston.

Our Keynote Speakers include:

Geoff McGrath, Managing Director of McLaren Applied Technologies fresh from the Montreal F1 race

Maria Fischer, CEO of BienTech International

Our 40+ speakers, educational tracks, presentations, and product demonstrations will center on using modeling and simulation tools and practices to meet the challenges presented by the current operating environment.

Attendees will learn about new applications and practices and have an opportunity to network with other industry professionals.

There are streams planned for each of the following program tracks:

* Defense and Homeland Security
* Aeronautics, Engineering, and Transportation
* Government, Research, Education and Environment
* Health, Medical, and Biotech

Crosscutting tracks include:

* Artificial Intelligence, Emerging technologies, methodologies and paradigms. What are the emerging technologies, methodologies and paradigms that can be applied to the existing environment in order to support a uniform organizational approach to modelling and simulation?

Ø Future impacts of technology

Ø Artificial Intelligence, smart bots,

Ø Serious games, virtual worlds, immersive learning and distributed learning technologies to implement innovative solutions

Ø Learning and collaboration tools

* What role does distance learning and other education methodologies and technologies play in supporting the adoption of new processes?

Ø A reflection upon the role of distance learning and education when you model becomes law, policy, product etc.

Ø A review of how learning technology, national infrastructure, and an a clear vision are required to sustain a knowledge economy

Our workshops include:

An industrial visit to the Canadian Space Agency

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade will host two round-table discussions for Canadian modeling and simulation companies at Modsim Canada. The round-tables will have as a goal helping companies better understand the opportunities in the US and international markets.

Round-table 1: Federal Resources for Contracting With International Governments

Representatives from the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), Industry Canada (IC), Canada Economic Development (CED) and Export Development Corporation of Canada (EDC) will give short presentations on the programs and opportunities available to Canadians. The topics of the round-table will include Industrial and Regional Benefits (IRB) Policy, ITAR, the US General Services Administration and current opportunities for contracting. The presentations will be followed by a Q+A period with participants.

Round-table 2: Modeling and Simulation in the US: Opportunities and Partnerships

Guy Hagen, CEO of Florida-based Innovation Insights will present the highlights of his industry profile paper “The Florida Digital Media Market Report” and will speak to the best strategies and approaches when partnering with US-based companies. Also in attendance will be Maria Fischer, CEO of BienTech International, a company with extensive experience in the US aerospace and defence industry. The presentations will be followed by a Q+A period with participants.

Three of our conferences will be done in Second life and board cast at our event by presenters around the world.

MODSIM World Canada’s organizing committee would like to invite your team to cover our event. The event is run by a not for profit organisation called the Committee for the Promotion of Modeling, Simulation and Distributed Learning. Our hope is that the science and technology our partners and presenters offer interesting and captivating to your viewers and your sponsors.

Please see the full schedule on our web site at www.modsimworldcanada.ca .

Your presence at MODSIM World Canada 2010 is important to our industry and our Country. We look forward to hearing from you.

The National Center for Telehealth and Technology will launch a new virtual worlds project for service members who struggle with deployment or psychological healthcare issues related to deployment.

During a June 3 DotMilDocs interview on Pentagon Web Radio, Dr. Kevin M. Holloway, a T2 clinical psychologist and the project lead for the Virtual Worlds project, explained how the web-based project uses a 3-D computer-generated environment to help improve psychological services and care.

With the new project, service members will have access to tutorials, information and training, as well as get an opportunity to socialize with other service members or counselors, regardless of their location.

In the future, T2 hopes to launch other beneficial attributes to help learn more about psychological issues such as a virtual simulator where service members learn by doing.

Some high school students spend their afternoons playing in simulated environments through their video games.

Four students at the Pruden Center, however, have spent their afternoons developing their own simulated environments — whether for modeling a weapon to see its potential effects or a building complete with textures and measurements.

Austin Bolz, Benjamin Teters, Myles Napier and El Williams will be the first students in the area to graduate from high school with a background in modeling and simulation and internship experience with local industry leaders.

“The program was the first of its kind, insofar that it provides a different pathway for students to get into modeling and simulation,” Pruden Center Director Corey McCray said.

“It’s exciting to see our goals for the program coming to fruition. All students are completing their internships, and the companies have expressed interest in continuing to work with the students, and students have expressed a desire to continue their education.”

The Pruden Center’s program allows high school students to enroll in up to 12 credits of community college level courses, and it offers training courses for modeling and simulation support specialists.

Upon completion of the courses and graduating high school, the credits can be applied to an associate’s or bachelor’s degree or be used to help secure an entry-level job in the field.

“It’s a pathway for students to enter the profession as support specialists and earn college credit towards an associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D., while at the same point becoming candidates for immediate employment,” McCray said.

In the program, students learn to use gaming software to create high-dimensional models on a computer and achieve realistic results.

“They’re using training programs to create real-life situations,” said modeling and simulation teacher Josh Burns. “If you put a building or something together wrong in the simulation, it’ll fall apart — just like it would in the real world.”

Skills being taught at the school are the same ones they’ll use in the workplace.

“We’ve been working on doing real-world simulations,” said El Williams, who is interning at Mymic. “It’s like putting military training on a computer. If there’s someone hurt in the field we simulate them getting hurt and then the process of getting them what they need.”

“They did a great job in preparing us for our internships,” said Myles Napier, who in interning at Mymic. “Most of the hard work we’re doing in the field, we got the basics for in the class.”

Because of Suffolk’s prime location as one of the epicenters of modeling and simulation, industry leaders approached the school system with the idea of educating students to perform support duties and spark an interest in pursuing a career in modeling and simulation.

“As an entrepreneurial company, we’ve experienced growth and are looking for new talent,” said Rich Moorman of SimIS. “We’re excited about working with them on developing the program. They’re on the cutting edge, and there’s a lot to be gained by both sides.”

Students at SimIS outlined their own goals, which mentors helped them achieve through various projects, such as installing a gaming engine, which is used to create many commercial video games, and creating buildings and weapons to test their design and effects.

Students at the center have expressed interest in continuing their education in modeling and simulation, and Mymic is maintaining its interns for an extended period of time.

“I’ve loved it,” Napier said. “The internship aspect has been fun. It’s what I really love to do. It’s the only thing I’ve done in school that I haven’t gotten bored with. I’m thankful I’ve had the chance to do it and know it’s what I want to pursue.”

DENVER & Stuttgart, Germany (June 7, 2010) Intermap Technologies – a worldwide 3D digital mapping and geospatial solutions company, and the University of Stuttgart – amongst other research fields, a leading provider of in-vehicle research and simulation technology, today announced that Intermap’s highly accurate and uniform 3D road geometry has been selected for the university’s interdisciplinary research project VALIDATE – effective immediately.

As part of the Germany federal government’s high-tech strategy and IKT2020 research program, the University of Stuttgart initiated its VALIDATE research project in July 2008 with the goal of reducing vehicular CO2 emissions. The 3.7 million euro project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through June 2011 – enabling the design of a powerful research platform that drives the analysis of benefits associated with future electronic control and assistance systems for motor vehicles.

The cornerstone of the VALIDATE project, in which several departments of the University of Stuttgart are participating, consists of building a driving simulator that will help develop intelligent driver assistance systems to increase fuel efficiencies and reduce CO2 emissions. The driving simulator is planned to be taken into operation in early 2011.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans-Christian Reuss (director chair of automotive mechatronic), University of Stuttgart said, “A driving simulator is a safe and economical way to test new systems in a virtual environment using actual drivers. In particular, this research will focus on assistance systems that can create an indirect reduction in fuel consumption by influencing driving style. We are very pleased to be leveraging such good road coverage and accuracy in the form of Intermap 3D road data. This will certainly help us achieve useful results.”

“We are proud to be an integral part of a project that is capable of providing a solid foundation for automotive systems that reduce CO2 emissions and improve fuel efficiencies,” said Eric DesRoche, senior vice president, automotive, for Intermap Technologies. “Intermap believes in creating mutually beneficial relations with leading universities and this project with the University of Stuttgart will ultimately lead to the production of new vehicles that are simply better for the planet.”

Intermap is a global digital mapping company creating uniform high-resolution 3D digital models of the earth’s surface. The Company has proactively remapped entire countries and built uniform national databases, called NEXTMapr, consisting of affordably priced elevation data and geometric images of unprecedented accuracy. Demand for NEXTMap data is growing as new commercial applications emerge within the GIS, engineering, automotive, GPS maps, insurance risk assessment, oil and gas, hydrology, renewable energy, environmental planning, wireless communications, transportation, aviation, and 3D visualization markets.

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap has offices in Calgary, Detroit, Jakarta, London, Munich, Paris, Prague, and Washington D.C. For more information, visit www.Intermap.com, www.mobile.AccuTerra.com or www.TerrainOnDemand.com.

NEXTMapr and AccuTerrar are registered trademarks of Intermap Technologies Corporation.

About University of Stuttgart

The main emphasis of the Universität of Stuttgart with its 20.000 students is on engineering and the natural sciences. However, combining these areas with the humanities and the social sciences adds something special to its profile.

Indicators of the excellent status are the two projects that were successful in the recent “Excellence Initiative” sponsored by both the Federal and the State governments. One project is the Cluster of Excellence “Simulation Technology” and the other, the Graduate School “Advanced Manufacturing Engineering”. The research activities are concentrated around eight interdisciplinary areas, “Modelling and Simulation Technology”, “New Materials”, “Complex Systems and Communication”, “Concepts of Technology and Technology Evaluation”, “Energy and the Environment”, “Mobility”, “Integrated Product Design and Production Organisation” as well as “Building and Housing”. The Universität Stuttgart is going to strengthen its research through interdisciplinary networks of cooperation in order to continue to expand the cutting-edge position in these fields.

For more information about the VALIDATE project, please visit: www.validate-stuttgart.de/english

Stingray Geophysical Limited, a leader in Seismic Permanent Reservoir Monitoring (Seismic PRM) solutions, and Ikon Science Limited, the Geoscience Technology Company, have entered into an agreement to explore and co-operate in the development, marketing and joint delivery of a new time-lapse technology and services offering to customers in the upstream oil and gas industry.
Time-lapse seismic imaging of oil and gas reservoirs using multi-component sensors permanently installed on the seabed will enable the monitoring of fluid, pressure and geomechanical changes during production.

The technology, when used as part of a reservoir management strategy, will enable oil companies to increase production and reserves while reducing cost and risk. By combining time-lapse seismic and production data into a 3D geological model, predicted changes can be validated with 4D seismic modelling. Time-lapse seismic has proven value for reservoir monitoring across the reservoir lifecycle from oil and gas production to Carbon Storage and Sequestration.

Recognising that customers are increasingly looking to their preferred suppliers to deliver robust, integrated reservoir monitoring solutions, Ikon and Stingray will be working together to leverage their complementary expertise to enable swift, accurate and cost-effective seismic on demand for efficient reservoir characterisation and management decision making.

Commenting on the announcement, Ikon Science CEO, Martyn Millwood Hargrave said: “We look forward to working with Stingray on the development of integrated workflow processes as well as contributing to their feasibility study service which assists oil company customers in establishing the value of and options for installing a PRM system on their producing fields to maximise recovery rates. Stingray’s cost-effective and reliable Fosar® system will bring leading edge fibre-optic sensing technology and high quality data to Seismic PRM projects, enabling frequently updated reservoir models. This co-operation opens up the opportunity for Ikon Science to offer seismic to simulation services.”

Stingray CEO, Martin Bett, explains: “Stingray operates a flexible business model which allows us to combine our broad in-house capabilities with the resources of other expert organisations to deliver optimal customer solutions. We look forward to exploring ways in which we can combine Ikon Science’s industry leading RokDoc-ChronoSeis™ reservoir monitoring software and QIS modelling and analysis services with our Seismic PRM expertise on customer projects, expanding our integrated offering with rock physics analysis and integrated reservoir products.”

Stingray Geophysical and Ikon Science will be exhibiting at the 72nd EAGE Conference & Exhibition incorporating SPE EUROPEC 2010, being held at the CCIB, Barcelona from 14-17 June, 2010.

I-WAY simulation centre invites British race-goers to avoid the gendarmes and get their speed fix on its professional Pescarolo endurance race car simulators instead

Lyon, France – As thousands of Brits prepare for the annual homage to La Sarthe for the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans race this weekend (June 12th-13th 2010), I-WAY – the world’s only high-end venue dedicated to motor racing simulation – is advising British motor racing enthusiasts to incorporate a trip to Lyon. There, they can experience 18 professional Cruden simulators using Pescarolo sports cars (as raced at Le Mans), Formula 1 cars and Citroën C2 rally cars to get as close to racing reality as possible.

“I-WAY extends a warm welcome to the many enthusiasts from the UK who choose to spend longer in France before or after the Le Mans race weekend,” says Pierre Nicolas, one of the owners of I-WAY. “Instead of suffering the infamous police speed checks en-route to Calais, we recommend race goers come to Lyon where they can race fast against their friends in a safe and exclusive environment.”

The I-WAY concept was driven by a desire to give ordinary people access to a once-in-a-life-time realistic motorsport experience. This had to be in a car as close to a real Formula 1 racer as possible and allow guests to race against each other, truly pushing themselves, safely; all for under €100. “It costs between €3,000 and €5,000 to drive a real F1 car on a track, and for that you get no race, you are not capable of pushing yourself to go really fast, and it is not entirely safe,” continues Pierre Nicolas. “With karting, you get the racing but not the car and certainly not the realistic exclusive motorsport environment. I-WAY provides access to the most realistic motorsport event that enthusiasts can hope for, from just €75.”

Cruden is the world’s leading racing simulator company, providing the most accurate and realistic motion simulation to the top levels of motorsport internationally. Its systems offer six ‘degrees of freedom,’ 100 percent realistic steering feedback, g-force simulation up to multiple g’s and wraparound screens. I-WAY is currently the only venue in mainland Europe where such sophisticated simulation is available to the public.

I-WAY is open 12:00-22:00 on weekdays, 10:30-22:40 on Saturdays and 10:30-18:20 on Sundays. A single race in a Rally car or an endurance car costs €75 per person; private hire of one of the simulation rooms for a Formula 1 race for six people is €270; and a special couple’s package including a simulation session for him, a spa treatment for her, two meals and two cocktails costs €250. I-WAY offers much more than racing to its visitors within its premium, luxury complex. It has a spa, a lounge bar and restaurant with two terraces, a shop and four conference rooms. I-WAY is also a venue for business events and corporate entertainment where it hosts seminars, incentives and training, as well as providing corporate gift packages. Visitors should check the I-WAY website for the latest offers and competitions — http://uk.i-way-world.com/.

About I-WAY
I-WAY was founded in 2008 by former professional tennis players and childhood friends, Pierre Nicolas and Benoit Dupré, as well as Daniel Nicolas, Pierre’s father. Driven by a deep passion for motorsport, they strived to find a way to give ordinary people access to a once-in-a-life-time realistic motorsport race experience in a Formula 1 car for under 100 Euros. I-WAY is organised around three simulation areas with six professional Cruden simulators in each. Guests can choose from Formula 1 cars, endurance Pescarolo sports cars and Citroën C2 Rally cars. I-WAY has several other luxurious areas – a spa, an alcohol-free bar, a lounge bar and restaurant with two terraces, a shop and four conference rooms. http://uk.i-way-world.com/

Ever found a computer game truly impossible? If not, you soon might, thanks to Chinese computer scientists who have found a way to depict physically impossible figures in 3D virtual environments.

The endless staircases of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher appear impossible and possible at the same time, and able to go in all directions. Such visual trickery depends heavily on the observer’s viewpoint – and that makes it difficult to animate Escher-type figures in games. If the viewpoint pans around a 3D computer depiction of such a staircase, “the impossibility is lost”, says Tai-Pang Wu at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Now his team has found a way to make these images viewable from a useful array of angles. The trick is to take advantage of the image’s strangeness; viewers scarcely notice if an Escher staircase becomes slightly distorted.

So Wu’s team has written 3D software that deforms the impossible figures by a different amount for each viewing angle to maintain the illusion of impossibility. “We model the shape as if it’s a non-rigid body, like an amoeba, which can be deformed,” says Wu.
The right viewpoint

They also identify the range of angles for which impossibility – is maintained, and the software limits viewpoints to lie within that range. Wu thinks that the system could be incorporated into a graphics package for multimedia artists.

Impossible figures have been used in games before, though not in full 3D with panning camera motion. For instance, in 2000, the hit Blizzard Entertainment game Diablo II had a level set in an impossible piece of architecture. “But you couldn’t view the architecture from a different viewpoint,” Wu says.

“People love visual illusions and tricks and this is certainly an interesting geometric exercise,” says Daniel Cohen-Or of Tel Aviv University in Israel. But it is far from certain that game makers or graphics firms need such tools, he adds. “Finding a practical, commercial application will be tricky.”

“>Click here to have a peak

Leading edge University of Ulster expertise in virtual world learning is being showcased in Mexico by a team of specialist researchers from the Magee campus.

Three members of a team at the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) have been sharing their knowledge with students and staff at Monterrey Institute of Technology (Tecnológico de Monterrey) over the past week.

They are in The Serious Games and Virtual Worlds group at the internationally respected ISRC, a flagship institute in the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems at the Faculty of Computing and Engineering.

Michael Callaghan, Kerri McCusker and Julio Lopez Losada have been invited to the Estado de México (CEM) campus of the Institute to host a series of lectures, seminars and workshops on the use of immersive virtual worlds for teaching STEM and engineering related subjects.

The Serious Games and Virtual Worlds Group is involved in pioneering research, development and design in the increasingly important medium of virtual worlds and the application and development of video games technologies in education and workplaces. It is one of seven research teams in the ISRC, the success of which is giving the North West a leading role in the development of new technologies.

Lecturer Michael Callaghan said: “It is a great honour for us to be invited to the Tecnológico de Monterrey which is one of the leading providers of distance learning in Latin America and we look forward to working with colleagues who are doing similar work there.”

Research Associate Kerri McCusker said: “Virtual worlds are increasingly important tools for educators as we seek to engage the next generation of learners. Our team has seen a growing interest in the use of virtual worlds within educational institutes and their potential for impact on teaching and learning provision.”

Dr Jorge Ramírez of the Tecnológico de Monterrey said; “Technological change has reached education. Students want to learn and interact in new and engaging technologically advanced learning environments, socializing and working collaboratively. We have invited the team from Ulster to share with us their extensive experience with these technologies. ”

For further information on the research carried out by the Serious Games and Virtual Worlds Research team contact Michael Callaghan, mj.callaghan@ulster.ac.uk, Kerri McCusker, ka.mccusker@ulster.ac.uk or visit the ISRC website http://isrc.ulster.ac.uk

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 4 /PRNewswire/ — The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) has awarded Wyle one of nine indefinite-quantity multiple award contracts covering Software, Networks, Information and Modeling and Simulation (SNIM) with a maximum value of $2 billion over the next five years.

SNIM serves as an efficient contracting vehicle to quickly get information assurance, software data and analysis, modeling and simulation, knowledge management and information sharing services into the hands of DOD components, other Government agencies, industry and academia.

The vehicle provides a unique and symbiotic relationship for both customers and the science and technology community. Customers fund Technical Area Tasks, which yield new Scientific and Technical Information. Under SNIM, all newly created Scientific and Technical Information will be added to one of three Information Analysis Centers (IACs).

Information Analysis Centers improve the productivity of researchers, engineers, and program managers in the research, development and acquisition communities by collecting, analyzing, processing, and disseminating worldwide scientific and technical information in their technical field of excellence.

Wyle is a leading provider of engineering and information technology services to the federal government including information technology security, cutting edge cyber-security solutions, innovative and effective IT consolidation, telecommunications, computer network defense systems integration, software development and analysis, and modeling and simulation.

Training and certification testing to meet federal Information Assurance requirements through its Information Assurance Academy, test and evaluation of networks, aircraft, weapon systems, and other government assets, as well as engineering services to the aerospace, defense, and nuclear power industries is also provided by the company.

The company also provides training and certification testing to meet federal information assurance requirements through its IA Academy, test and evaluation of networks, aircraft, weapon systems, and other government assets, as well as engineering services to the aerospace, defense, and nuclear power industries.

Gulf Oil Spill Could Spread to Atlantic Coast

Oil from BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill could reach the Atlantic coast in the coming months, according to a new computer simulation.

The model indicates that oil at the surface is likely to be picked up by a fast-moving stream of water in the Gulf known as the Loop Current, which feeds into the Gulf Stream current that carries water northward along the Atlantic coastline.

“I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘Will the oil reach Florida?’” Synte Peacock, who worked on the model at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said in a press release today. “Actually, our best knowledge says the scope of this environmental disaster is likely to reach far beyond Florida, with impacts that have yet to be understood.”

It is impossible to accurately predict precisely what will happen to the oil because it will depend on the ever-changing Loop Current and regional weather patterns. But the model, which is based on typical wind and current patterns for the area, can provide a range of possibilities.

Six different scenarios — one is shown in the video above — were run through the computer simulation. In all of them, the oil eventually gets entrained into the Gulf Stream and reaches the Atlantic coast, traveling north at speeds up to 100 miles a day as far north as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, before heading east into the open ocean. The main differences between the scenarios are in the timing of the oil’s movement.

“We have been asked if and when remnants of the spill could reach the European coastlines,” team member Martin Visbeck of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University in Germany said in the press release. “Our assumption is that the enormous lateral mixing in the ocean together with the biological disintegration of the oil should reduce the pollution to levels below harmful concentrations. But we would like to have this backed up by numbers from some of the best ocean models.”

The NCAR-led simulation was performed on supercomputers based at the New Mexico Computer Applications Center and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The scientists caution that the study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed and published, is not a forecast and is based on movement of a virtual dye that doesn’t resemble oil in some ways. The study also doesn’t take into account factors such as chemical breakdown and degradation of the oil or whether the oil will remain as a slick on the surface, coagulate or mix into the subsurface.

The team is working on extending the model further into the future.

Read more background on the study at the New York Times‘ Dot Earth blog, in the full press release, and at the DOE.

All six modeling scenarios can be found here.

Video: The animation is based on a computer model simulation, using a virtual dye, that assumes weather and current conditions similar to those that occur in a typical year. It is one of a set of six scenarios released today that simulate possible pathways the oil might take under a variety of oceanic conditions. Each of the six scenarios shows the same overall movement of oil through the Gulf to the Atlantic and up the East Coast. However, the timing and fine-scale details differ, depending on the details of the ocean currents in the Gulf. (Visualization by Tim Scheitlin and Rick Brownrigg, NCAR; based on model

Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/gulf-oil-could-spread-to-atlantic-coast/#ixzz0ptpCqkva

Engineers developing cars are always used to their company’s financial arm dictating the outcome of the product. So to allow this, engineers would have to make some compromises on their product.

Anything can be compromised in a car, but safety. So engineers invent newer and economical ways to make sure that their cars have high safety standards. This is exactly what the engineers at General Motors have done for the Chevrolet Cruze.

The Chevrolet Cruze has been developed with the help of elaborate computer crash simulations. Crash simulations are ‘extreme’ computer programs which simulate the deformation and impact forces on the vehicle when a car crashes. The engineers use a crash simulation program to study the results of a crash and using the data to correct or re-engineer the model before the final prototype is built.

With the help of crash simulations, a countless important tests can be run on a single vehicle without even a scratch on the vehicle.

The crash simulation super-computer has the processing power of 35,000 laptops and uses finite element analysis and complex mathematical formula to recreate real world crashes. Crash simulations are becoming increasingly popular with automobile manufacturers because they are both economical and time-saving.

A real live crash test is an expensive affair. One hundred crash simulations can be performed in the time it takes to run one live crash, which results in quicker product development. Moreover, the results of a crash simulation can be very detailed and data about the crash can be collected at every micro-second of the simulated crash.

Years ago, to develop a car like the Chevrolet Cruze, engineers would have crash tested at least a hundred cars, but now with computer simulations, all the crashes are simulated and only a few live crashes are performed to validate the computer’s results and to pass the Government’s safety tests.

Thanks to technologies like this, new cars are becoming safer every day. This doesn’t mean drivers can drive irresponsibly just because their cars are designed to withstand impacts. Driving safe is the biggest safety feature in a car.

Read more: http://indianautosblog.com/2010/06/chevrolet-cruze-engineered-using-computer-crash-simulations#ixzz0pnC4wOWV