NASA Contributions to Mathematical Modeling and Simulation and Their Potential Use Outside the Aerospace Industry

Potentials for technology transfer can be found where you would least expect them. I approached the task in the title with great skepticism. Although NASA had undoubtedlymade extensive use of mathematical modeling and computer simulation, it seemed unlikely that they could be used for anything except the special purpose for which they were intended. But I developed a methodical approach to try to find out. First, a week in a NASA library with catalogues of report titles, abstracts and microfiche produced about 150 possible candidates - much to my surprise. The filtering process included discussions with other staff members at Abt Associates with first-hand knowledge of current problems in business, education, transportation, social programs, etc. and •with senior people in NASA Headquarters who were generally familiar with the work that had been done and, more importantly, knew about current programs. With this background information, I knew who to visit in the NASA centers and what to talk about. Because of the time lag between completion of a project and publication of an abstract in a catalog of reports, memories fade about projects that were usually carried out by someone else several years ago. But there are usually more important projects whose abstracts have not yet made the archives