Unpredictable/Unsimulatable?

Abstract

George Bekey has been involved in simulation since 1950, when he started graduate work at UCLA (BSEE, UC Berkeley, 1950) and worked as a research assistant on the UCLA mechanical differential analyzer and ac network analyzer. He was in charge of those two machines from 1952-54, when he was inducted into the U.S. Army and spent two years "simulating an enlisted man. After discharge he did analog computer simula tions with Beckman Instruments in Richmond, Califor nia, and subsequently organized and directed a Beckman analog simulation center in Los Angeles.

In 1958 George joined TRW (Thompson Romo Woolridge, the Space Technology Laboratories) and was named head of its Analysis and Simulation Center, where he was responsible for hybrid computers. After receiving his PhD from UCLA in 1962, he spent another year at TRW simulating manned space vehicles before joining the USC faculty, where he has been since 1963. For the last eight or ten years he has continued his simulation activities, but now with digital computers and digital simulation languages. He is primarily interested in mathematical models of biological sys tems, manual and automatic control, and system iden tification-as well as backpacking in the High Sierras.