Winter 2020: Volume 7 Issue 3

M&S Applied Across Broad Spectrum Defense and Federal Endeavors

This year’s theme is ‘Innovation’ – a term that often spurs thoughts of an inspired new gadget or possibly a way of doing something in a different manner. The Merriam-Webster definition simply states that innovation is “the introduction of something new” – that’s a pretty broad definition and certainly open to interpretation. A recent podcast panel on the topic provided varied perspectives from the participants, but in the end the group came to the consensus that innovation is “Executing an idea which addresses a specific challenge and achieves value for both the company and the customer.” The papers in this year’s journal certainly meet that definition – they each highlight excellent examples of meeting a very diverse set of government needs and challenges (the customer) by establishing capabilities via the innovative use of modeling and simulation expertise and tools that provided enduring value to both the innovator and the customer.