2007-2018
The Cluster of Excellence EXC 310 “Simulation Technology”, led by its spokesperson Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Ehlers, marked the beginning of SimTech as a major interdisciplinary research initiative at the University of Stuttgart. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2007 to 2018, the Cluster advanced Simulation Science in both breadth and depth, bringing together models, numerical methods and computational technologies from an engineering perspective.
Its central ambition was to develop Simulation Science beyond individual applications and disciplines. Researchers worked across disciplinary boundaries to develop fundamental and broadly applicable methods for modelling, computing and analysing complex systems, contributing to the emergence of Simulation Science as an interdisciplinary research field in its own right.
A Lasting Legacy
EXC 310 shaped SimTech far beyond its research programme. During its funding period, the Stuttgart Research Center for Simulation Technology (SRC SimTech) and later the Stuttgart Center for Simulation Science (SC SimTech) were established, creating a long-term institutional framework for interdisciplinary Simulation Science. The Cluster also contributed to establishing the consecutive Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in Simulation Technology and the SimTech Graduate Academy.
The scientific and structural foundations created by EXC 310 subsequently enabled the development of the Cluster of Excellence EXC 2075 “Data-Integrated Simulation Science”, which began in 2019 and extended the SimTech research agenda towards the systematic integration of data into modelling and simulation.