Deriving Simulation Models from Data: Steps of Simulation Studies Revisited

Simulation is typically a result of a tremendous amount of work performed by experts in various fields, usually in computer science, mathematics and the corresponding application area. The currently uncomplicated accessibility to data provides a significant opportunity to reduce the requirements for expert knowledge in some aspects, or at least to only utilize expert knowledge to supplement and validate data-derived models, or, vice versa, use collected data to confirm and validate existing expert knowledge. In this paper we explore the idea of derivation of simulation models from data. We, furthermore, survey and summarize related existing efforts for the most popular simulation paradigms, identifying benefits, opportunities and challenges, as well as discuss the ways in which the traditional simulation study processes are impacted.