The Economist has occasional articles on the practical applications of computer simulation.  Following are a couple of items that have appeared in the last year.

Agent-based simulation is used to model the behavior of crowds.  "Agent-based" means that each individual has some capacity to ascertain what is going on in the environment and act accordingly.  This approach is being used to simulate the movement of people in a railroad station or during a building fire.  On a much larger scale, each of the computer-generated orcs in the "Lord of the Rings" battle scenes moved independently based on his immediate surroundings.

Link to article.

The second article is a brief review of simulation's use in business applications, including large-scale systems (e.g., an airline), financial planning, forecasting, process mapping and Monte Carlo analysis.  This is a quick read on the ways simulation is used to illustrate and analyze a variety of complex situations.

Link to article.

Other informational resources that discuss simulation are included on our References page.