Keynotes

2025 WSC Keynote

Michael McFarlane

Chief, Simulation & Graphics Branch
NASA

Bio

Michael McFarlane currently serves as the chief of the Simulation and Graphics Branch at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. In this capacity, he leads a team that develops human-in-the-loop simulation capabilities as well as the tools used to build those integrated simulations. These simulations are used for a variety of purposes in support of human spaceflight, from early conceptualization through concept development, space vehicle development, mission planning, astronaut training, and real-time mission support.

Prior to his current position, he was chief of NASA’s Human Interface Branch, which develops and maintains displays and controls, audio systems, visual systems, and wearable systems for human space missions. He has been working at Johnson Space Center for nearly 40 years on a wide variety of technical projects. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1988.

2025 Titans of Simulation

Mark Elder

Founder of Simul8
Retired

Bio

Mark Elder started working in simulation modeling 2 weeks after he started his first full time position (in the Operations Research group in British Leyland, a large UK based car manufacturer), and has never managed to escape the thrill of seeing clients’ minds open up as they realize the benefits that simulation brings.

After some months building GPSS simulations (and physical wooden models to help communicate the results) he joined the team building SEE-WHY the world’s first commercial, visual-interactive, simulation tool, that later evolved into Witness. While at British Leyland he started a part-time PhD with Bob Hurrion at Warwick University.

In the early 1980s he helped start Insight Scientific (creators of Optik and Genetik visual interactive simulation tools) before, in 1989, he switched to an academic position teaching simulation at Strathclyde University where he finished his PhD with Colin Eden. The “soft OR” approach favored by the Strathclyde group was a significant influence on Mark’s approach to simulation. He believes that only part of the benefit is from the statistical results, whereas much of the client’s learning comes from interacting with the simulation and the process of building the simulation.

In 1994, feeling the time was right for a high-volume, drag and drop simulation tool, he founded Simul8 Corporation (from which he retired in 2024 – Simul8 is now part of Minitab).

Mark is a “Fellow” of the Operational Research Society, who also awarded him a Beale medal, and he currently chairs its accreditation panel.

Mark continues to attend academic simulation conferences, conduct pro-bono simulation projects and ride his mountain bike.

Charles M. Macal

Chief Scientist &
Social Behavioral Systems, Group Leader
Argonne National Laboratory

MASM Keynote

Cathal Heavey

Professor, Supply Chain Management
School of Engineering
University of Limerick

Review of Past Research and Reflections on Digital Thread/Twin Affordability in (Semiconductor) Supply Chain and Manufacturing

This presentation will review past research projects on improving operations of manufacturing and supply chain systems with the goal of highlighting future research challenges. Several of these projects were in semiconductor manufacturing and supply chains. These past research projects were funded nationally, by the EU and industry. It will document several research challenges on topics of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), optimization using online machine learning metamodels, simulation analysis of Advanced Planning System Analysis (APS), and supplier selection. Finally, the presentation will reflect on the role of Digital Thread/Twin and the feasibility of this approach with the current availability of methodologies, computing, and human resources.

Bio

Cathal Heavey is a Professor in Supply Chain Management at the University of Limerick. He has been involved in research projects funded from national (e.g., Enterprise Ireland) & European (e.g., European Union – Framework Programs 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020) sources as well as a several projects directly funded by industry. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Simulation, a publication of the OR Society, Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Simulation: Transaction of The Society for Modeling and Simulation International and a past Department Editor of the IISE Transactions Journal a publication of The Institute of Industrial Engineers of America. He is a Program Member of the International Conference on Modeling and Analysis of Semiconductor Manufacturing (MASM) and a past and present program member of several other conferences.

Military Keynote

Andreas Tolk

Chief Scientist, Complex Systems Modeling
Modeling and Analysis Innovation Center
The MITRE Corporation

Combat and Complexity: Using Modeling and Simulation to Understand the Implications for the Next War

Ideas of complexity can be found in the works of Sun Tzu and Clausewitz, so complexity in combat is not a new concept the military community and supporting modeling, simulation, and analysis experts must deal with. However, the amount of complexity increases. Early weapon systems did not reach beyond the direct control of the user. The battlefield could be delimited using organizational boundaries defining areas of responsibility assigned to local units. Today’s weapon effects reach beyond the control of the user. Areas of responsibility overlap. Unit boundaries are no longer efficient, but collaboration in the overlapping areas is needed. Today’s military operations increasingly rely upon joint, coalition, allied, and combined multilateral forces that are optimized, and task organized. Air, land, sea, space, and cyber operations are being tied together on a multidomain battlefield characterized by non linear operations in a networked kill web. Such kill webs provide a new from of operational agility that is far beyond current capabilities, but also requires new degrees of weapon system interoperability and a new concepts for battle management command and control. This presentation shows implications for the next war and recommends a closer collaboration with the complex adaptive systems community to benefit from their methods and tools.

Bio

Andreas Tolk is Chief Scientist for Complex Systems Modeling in the Modeling and Analysis
Innovation Center at The MITRE Corporation in Charlottesville, VA. He holds a variety of service and editorial roles within the simulation community, including having served on the WSC Governance Board from 2013 to 2021. He has an extensive publication record, including many contributions to the Command and Control Research Program and the System Analysis and Studies Group of NATOs Science and Technology Board. Among 14 other textbooks and compendiums on simulation and systems engineering topics he authored the textbook “Engineering Principles of Combat Modeling and Distributed Simulation,” published
2012 by Wiley. He received a PhD and M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of the Federal Armed Forces, Germany. Andreas is a Fellow of SCS and a senior member of ACM and IEEE. He received distinguished contribution awards from ACM and SCS and was recognized as a “Titan of Simulation” at the Winter Simulation Conference 2021.