Modelling

Models provide us with a means of experimenting. All engineering design uses modelling:

• Architectural designers develop drawings of different aspects of their structures to evaluate how they will be appreciated. They have to ensure that the buildings they are designing will work. The buildings should have services in the right places, they should be visually attractive and should fit within their environments. The models created communicate the architects' thoughts with clients, builders and a wider public.
• Civil engineers may need to create models of structures that are drawn to indicate their basic layout. Their modelling may have to go much further: the models may be analysed for characteristics such as loading at various points to ensure that the structure is able to withstand the stresses to which it will be subjected. These models may be essentially mathematical.
• An electronics engineer will design and plan the architecture and implementation of the system through a number of circuit diagrams. The developed circuit diagrams can be validated using tools that ensure that the electrical rules defined for each component are not violated and that the components used will work together adequately in a variety of simulations.

Modelling of software systems is relatively new. Our paper on Software Modelling, which considers this topic in more detail is available on request.