Discrete Event Simulation Research Team

Simulation studies often require the execution and analysis of an enormous number of simulations, which current massive-parallel supercomputers are capable of carrying out. However, designing and executing millions of different simulations are usually impractical. It is urgently necessary, therefore, to remove this obstacle in order to realize such studies, and this can be done by accelerating supercomputer applications.

Hence, we have developed OACIS, an open-source application software package, which we publicly released in 2014. Users operate OACIS through a web browser via a network. After installing OACIS on their computers, users upload and then register their own simulation and analysis software with OACIS together with specifies execution parameters. OACIS submits these jobs for execution via the network, monitors their status and gathers results when they are completed. APIs for Ruby and Python programs are available so that these programs can operate OACIS instead of the user.

In employing OACIS on the K and other supercomputers, we have studied various social simulations. Our results include the development of a simulation method to study important factors of vehicular traffic in a city, and we have applied it to the city of Kobe's traffic system. We have also developed a method to study the bottleneck factor that arises when people flee from major disasters. This we have applied to evacuation planning in the event of a tsunami attack on the cities of Kanazawa and Kamakura.