OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE SYSTEMS ASPECTS OF CHEMICAL PROCESSES RECEIVED A TREMENDOUS BOOTS WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF COMPUTERS. UNTIL THE LATE 1950S WHEN COMPUTERS FIRST BEGAN TO BECOME ACCESSIBLE TO ENGINEERS AND RESEARCHERS, PROCESS SYSTEMS COULD ONLY BE STUDIED ANALYTICALLY. PHYSICAL EXPERIMENTATION INVOLVING MANY VARIABLES AND THEIR INTERACTIONS WERE TOO DIFFICULT AND TOO EXPENCIVE TO CARRY OUT. PRACTICALLY SPEAKING, SYSTEMS RESEARCH WAS LIMITED ONLY TO THE ARES AMENABLE TO ANALYTIC