ENGINEERING COLLABORATIONS IN MEDICAL MODELING AND SIMULATION

Fifty years ago computer science was just beginning to see common acceptance as a growing discipline and very few universities had a computer science department although other departments were utilizing computers and software to enhance their methodologies. We believe modeling and simulation (M&S) is on a similar path. Many other disciplines utilize M&S to enhance their methodologies but we also believe that M&S fundamentals can be essential in making better decisions by utilizing the appropriate model for the problem at hand, expanding the solution space through simulation, and understanding it through visualization and proper analyses. After our students learn these fundamentals, we offer the opportunity to apply them to varied application areas. One such application area is medical M&S, which is a broad area involving anatomical modeling, planning and training simulations,image-guided procedures and more. In this paper, we share several research projects involving M&S and the collaborations that make them possible.