Computational simulation is now widely accepted as a third modality for scientific investigation, along with theory and experiment. The awarding of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work associated with the design and application of the ``Gauss'' computer code and the reliance of the Department of Energy on computational simulation for the stewardship of the nuclear stockpile in the ASCI program are evidences of the maturation of simulation, fulfilling the visions of Richardson in the 20's, of Von Neumann in the 40's, and of Wilson in the 80's. In this talk, we briefly review the history of computational science and engineering (CS&E) and contemporary federal, academic, and industry programs in CS&E. We then discuss the chain of disciplines required to build and execute a modern simulation code, including aspects of the application domain, algorithmics, computer architecture, and software engineering, and we briefly illustrate with representative projects. Finally, we delve into a particular model problem and a particular application from computational aerodynamics in a bit of detail, and round out the lecture with a video demonstration of CFD simulations and advanced forms of post-processing for human interaction with the data sets.

The 1.5-hour presentation requires an overhead slide projector and a VHS VCR system.