Ontologies for Modeling and Simulation: An Initial Framework

Many fields have or are developing ontologies for their subdomains. The Gene Ontology (GO) is now considered to be a great success in biology, a field that has already developed several extensive ontologies. Similar advantages could accrue to the Modeling and Simulation community. Ontologies provide a way to establish common vocabularies and capture domain knowledge for organizing the domain with a community-wide agreement. They can be used to provide significantly improved (semantic) search and browsing, integration of heterogeneous information sources, and improved analytics and knowledge discovery capabilities. In this paper, the design and development of a draft ontology for Modeling and Simulation called the Discrete-event Modeling Ontology (DeMO) are discussed, which can form a basis for achieving a broader community agreement and adoption. Relevant taxonomies and formal frameworks are reviewed and the design choices for the DeMO ontology are made explicit. Prototype applications that demonstrate various uses and benefits from such ontologies for the Modeling and Simulation community are also presented