The Seminar Series “Readings in Modelling & Simulation” is a forum where graduate students, researchers and other interested people can discuss in an informal environment advances, research trends and methodological issues related to modelling and simulation in a wide range of disciplines and application domains. The series is maintained as part of the MAMS Module Programme, a course on “Advanced Methods of Modelling and Simulation,” taught at ProDEI/FEUP. With this forum, we aim at building the appropriate atmosphere for a fruitful and enthusiastic discussion based on literature material collected and prepared by a set of proposed presenters, both from within graduate students attending the MAMS course and other invited researchers carrying out some sort of investigation in related fields. More specifically, our goals are:

• To motivate discussion on how to advance in the field of Computer Simulation
• To identify research trends and opportunities
• To present specific issues to be addressed and problems to be tackled by the community
• To promote research projects and disseminate results, by research teams at FEUP
• To carry out systematic literature reviews on related areas

The list of topics to be discussed and addressed within this forum is too broad, and varies from time to time depending on current research trends as identified during MAMS editions. Nonetheless, the list is not meant to be exhaustive and limited to the topics suggested. Please, feel free to propose and contribute with new entries. Some suggestions are given in the lists below:

• General topics
• Domain-specific topics

• Second Edition: Autumn 2011
• First Edition: Spring 2011

To build an appropriated environment for discussion, we favour informal presentations leaving enough room for interactions between audience and presenters. Whereas powerpoint presentations serve to support and to structure the main topics and ideas of the presenters, we encourage presenters to provide literature references as well, with links to the digital version of original documents so that the audience can get acquainted with content and deepen knowledge on the subject. To accomplish this, we suggest the following format for presentation:

• 15-minute presentation, supported by projected (PowerPoint) slides and other multi-media support the presenter find appropriate
• time for discussion (5-minute, for students enrolled in the MAMS course), which will be moderated by a nominated chair
• all support material, especially main bibliographic references, must be made available

We especially suggest that presenters focus on issues related to (but not exclusively):

• Simulation projects life-cycle
• Validation and calibration methodologies
• Real-life application and results
• Systematic reviews of literature
• Trends and research opportunities

Instructions for students attending the MAMS Module

The Seminar Series are held during the second term of each academic year (Spring, generally), as part of the MAMS course programme. We invite and motivate prospective presenters to get involved, by submitting and sending their contributions and proposals through e-mail (to rossetti@fe.up.pt). Should you have and inquiries about how to get involved, please do not hesitate to contact through the same e-mail address.