The Structured Modeling principles proposed by Geoffrion form a solid methodological basis for SMT, which aims at supporting the entire modeling process composed of:

• Analysis of the problem, including the role of a model in the corresponding decision-making process; and the development of the corresponding model specification.
• Collection and verification of the data to be used for the calculation of the model parameters.
• Definition of various model instances(composed of a model specification, and a selection of data defining its parameters).
• Diversified analyses of instances.
• Documentation of the whole modeling process.

All persistent elements of the modeling process are stored in a data warehouse, which makes possible model development and use over the web, including a complete recreation of any model instance and any of the associated preferential structure used for model analysis. All modeling activities will be automatically documented; this will include documentation of a model specification and diversified analyses of the model. Thus, SMT will support interdisciplinary modeling activities by teams working at distant locations, and eventually will include advanced techniques for coping with uncertainty and risk.

1. handling large amounts of data used for model development and resulting from diversified methods of model analysis.
2. efficient support for a large number of various types of analyses of large models, including handling of huge amounts of resulting data,
3. adapting methods of data mining to extract knowledge from such results,
4. communicating the structures of large optimization problems to grid-computing solvers,
5. adaptation of specialized optimization algorithms for badly conditioned problems,
6. automatic documentation of the entire modeling process to be available on demand in diversified forms that fit needs of various users of SMT, and
7. adapting the knowledge engineering methods for the efficient use of the diversified capabilities of SMT.

The methodological background, and recent developments in SMT are described in:

M. Makowski, A Structured Modeling Technology, EJOR, 2005, draft version available here;

C. Chudzian, Support of Model Analysis within Structured Modeling Technology, Interim Report, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, 2004, IR-04-051;

B. Predki, Qualitative Decision Models for Structured Modeling Technology, Interim Report, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, 2004, IR-04-050;

More general discussion of modeling problems and methods can be found e.g. in:

M. Makowski and A. Wierzbicki, Modeling Knowledge: Model-Based Decision Support and Soft Computations, X. Yu and J. Kacprzyk, Applied Decision Support with Soft Computing, Berlin, New York, Springer-Verlag, 2003, pp.3-60, Series: Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, vol. 124, ISBN 3-540-02491-3, draft version available here;

M. Makowski, Modeling techniques for complex environmental problems, M. Makowski and H. Nakayama, Natural Environment Management and Applied Systems Analysis, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, 2001, pp. 41-77, ISBN 3-7045-0140-9, available here;

M. Makowski, Complex Problem Solving in the Knowledge Grid, System Science and System Engineering, G. Chen and T. Cheng and J. Gu, Global-Link Publisher, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, 2003, pp. 622-630, ISBN 962-8266-34-X

Responsible for this page: Amalia Priyatna
Last updated: 17 Nov 2011