Our paper, An Objective-based Approach for Semantic Validation of Emergence in Component-based Simulation Models (C.Szabo and Yong Meng Teo) has been accepted for publication in PADS 2012!
Abstract: With recent advances in composable modeling and simulation, increasingly complex models can be developed and reused. However, composed models have been shown to exhibit emergent properties as a result of the
interaction between components. The representation, identification, and validation of emergence is of crucial importance in modeling and simulation, since emergent properties can have a negative effect on the behavior of the system. Despite a plethora of definitions and methods to identify emergence, practical semantic validation approaches remain a challenge. This paper proposes a conceptual approach for the semantic validation of emergence in component-based simulation models. Our proposed approach relies on a novel objective-based representation of the simulation model components that describes model components in terms of what they achieve rather than how they achieve it. This objective-based definition reduces the number of attributes describing each component and facilitates the application of complex mathematical formalisms for emergence validation.