Larry B. Rainey

Larry B. Rainey Biography I am research engineer who has a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering with a focus in Control Systems and Systems Science. My research interest include space system applications and how modeling and simulation can be used to construct control systems exercising the principles of Systems Science such as the Conant-Ashby Theorem and the Law of Requisite Variety. My problem solving philosophy derives from Albert Einstein. I strive to find the general solution that can be superimposed upon many specific instantiations of the same given problem domain. I am a member of The Society for Modeling & Simulation International and serve as a Consulting Editor for the Journal for Defense Modeling and Simulation. During my 20 year Air Force career I have served as an Adjunct Professor in the Space Operations Program at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs teaching Space Modeling and Simulation. My last assignment was as an Assistant Professor at the Air Force Institute of Technology in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics teaching spacecraft design. I was the first professor, in this department, to institute the use of modeling and simulation for the purpose of conducting spacecraft bus and payload tradeoffs and for conducting space mission analyses. I have always worked on the cutting edge of any project that I have been involved in. Examples include the development of the detection algorithm for the F-15E LANTIRN pod, design of the Command, Control, Computer and Intelligence System for the (then) Air Force Logistics Command, development of the guidance and control algorithms for the Space Shuttle that would have launched out of Vandenberg AFB, CA, led the implementation of ring laser gyroscopes for the Space Shuttle inertial measurement unit in lieu of the mechanical gimbals gyroscopes and development of the first ever video teleconferencing capability for modeling and simulation. Today, I am in the process of implementing Agent-based modeling in a DoD agency. I strive to make application of the most current research in the field of endeavor to which I am working within. When I discover voids in the literature, from my perspective, particularly as it pertains to textbooks, I strive to fill it myself. All of my three texts have been instantiations of this practice. Although the publication dates are over two years, the application of the techniques contained in each text are timeless. My first text, Applied Modeling and Simulation: An Integrated Approach to Development and Operation, was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, specifically the Synthetic Theater of War Program Office. My second text, Space Modeling and Simulation: Roles and Applications Throughout the System Lifecycle was co-sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Academy Space Mission Analysis and Design Program Office and The Aerospace Corporation. My third text, Methods for Conducting Military Operational Analysis, was co-sponsored by the Military Operations Research Society and the Logistics Management Research Institute. Another void in the textbook literature will be filled with the forthcoming text Modeling and Simulation Support for System of Systems Engineering Applications. It is very timely with respect to the complexity as exhibited by ever increasing instantiations of the development of system of systems in different domains of society. This text will be published by John Wiley and Sons in the later part of 2014.