  The ubiquitous presence of computer simulations in all kinds of research
areas evidence their role as the new driving force for the advancement of
science and engineering research. Nothing seems to escape the image of success
that computer simulations project onto the research community and the general
public. One simple way to illustrate this consists of asking ourselves how
would contemporary science and engineering look like without the use of
computer simulations. The answer would certainly diverge from the current image
we have of scientific and engineering research.
  As much as computer simulations are successful, they are also methods that
fail in their purpose of inquiring about the world; and as much as researchers
make use of them, computer simulations raise important questions that are at
the heart of contemporary science and engineering practice. In this respect,
computer simulations make a fantastic subject of research for the natural
sciences, the social sciences, engineering and, as in our case, also for
philosophy. Studies on computer simulations touch upon many different facets of
scientific and engineering research and evoke philosophically inclined
questions of interpretation with close ties to problems in experimental
settings and engineering applications (...)
