‘Reality – An Evolving Emergent Creation in an Increasingly Digital World’, 3-4 p.m., 14 August 2021, Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalay, Indore.

Jawahar Bhalla is a passionate system professional with experience across multi-national organisations in technical and strategic leadership roles delivering complex capabilities. He contributes to the advancement of systems thinking, systems engineering and modelling & simulation, globally, through leadership roles in peak bodies including the Systems Engineering Society of Australia and Simulation Australasia. He has a BE in Aerospace Engineering and a BSc in Computer Science from UNSW, a Master’s in Systems Engineering from UNSW@ADFA and is a current iPhD candidate on an Australian Government Research Training Program, with industry partner Shoal Group, at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

We are in the throes of the greatest societal paradigm shift in recorded history. Systems thinking, modeling and simulation will underpin our safe passage through these fast-changing exciting yet challenging times. The unintended outbreak of malaria in Borneo in the early 1950s that resulted from WHO’s ‘reactive quick fix’ of spraying DDT to kill the mosquitoes is an example of a Systems Archetype of ‘Fixes that Backfire’. The negative consequences of food aid (while not fixing the root causes of the hunger) is another example of a Systems Archetype of ‘Shifting the Burden’.

Jawahar conducted polls with questions like (a) How important are systems thinking, modeling and simulation to our future? and (b) Are we living in a simulation? The concepts of Modelling and Simulation (M&S) were explained with references to the key innovations of aircraft generations from Gen-0 all the way up through to Gen-5 F-35 Lightning, highlighting each generation and explaining the fundamental differences between sensor integration and sensor fusion. The narrative covered a progression of generations for flight simulation architectures, driven by the advances in aircraft generations. The innovation in M&S technologies and architectures delivered the increasing fidelity and immersions across individual, team and tactics training.

We live in an increasingly interconnected socio-technical-digital construct. We are directed by our mental models that become our reality of abstractions based on our learning, perception and experiences. The fundamental concepts of M&S and systems thinking showed how our beliefs as models of reality were abstracted from our individual learning and perceived experiences. Every choice we make is a response following a simulation within us of our mental models in response to external stimuli. The concept of abstraction is then applied to our perceived reality. The simulation is powerful because it is the only means that facilitates both the transfer of knowledge and the validation of knowledge to wisdom through our experiences.

Amongst the panelists were Toshiko, Alexander Schiller, Dr Ramesh Sharma, Dr Santosh Dhar, Dr Tushar Mandal, Dr Anand Rajavat, Dr Uttam Sharma and Dr Vinod Dhar.

ISAGA2021 will be organised at SVVV, Indore, India from 6-10 September 2021 as an online event. We invite the S&G community to contribute to the conference. Papers will be published by Springer. Contributions are also invited in the form of workshops and posters.

ISAGA2021 webinar series is a great success due to the vigorous participation of SVVV faculty, S&G professionals and researchers, and teachers from diverse disciplines. This webinar was compered by Mrs Rupali Bhartiya under the guidance of Dr Jigyasu Dubey, ISAGA Conference Coordinator.?