Appearance
FOR EDUCATORS
Model building students really enjoy.
Drag blocks, connect them, hit play. Quisim's model builder is the part students remember.
Quisim is built for teaching discrete event simulation. Students get curious, try things, and learn by doing.
Quisim is built by a DES lecturer — the tool he wished existed when teaching with the alternatives, neither a stripped-down student edition of an enterprise platform, nor a Python library that loses half the class in week two.
Used in DES programs
Quisim was developed for five years before its first classroom adoption. In 2024, Quisim's developer — who had been teaching DES at ZHAW with ExtendSim since 2018 — asked whether he could switch his section to Quisim. Dr. Richard Bödi, Program Leader in Industrial Engineering, saw the tool and was sold. He took over a second section himself so he could teach with Quisim too. In the same year, a colleague adopted Quisim for the DES portion of a new joint MSE (Master of Science in Engineering) course. All three have taught with it since.
A single-semester DES course goes well beyond the intro material. Students build networks of queues with shared resources, work with routing logic and entity batching, and learn statistical analysis through multi-run experiments and batch means. They perform scenario comparisons with common random numbers, and sensitivity studies across parameter sweeps. By the end, they're building complex DES systems and delivering reliable simulation studies on their own.
Thesis projects go further still. Past student theses at ZHAW have modeled a complete production line — identifying five-figure annual savings — and built a cross-docking model used to plan a future logistics hub in Zurich. The deliverable is usually a parameterized model with a written report; Quisim's plain-text format makes the model itself a natural appendix to the thesis.
Why Quisim for teaching
No install, no friction. Students open a URL and start working. No Java runtime, no local license server, no antivirus battles, no IT tickets. The same model runs in the browser at home and on a lab machine.
Plain-text models. Models are text files — everything explicit on the page, down to whether a Statistics block is computing time-averages. Students submit them through Moodle or any LMS like any other assignment; a screenshot is often enough for a first look, and closer review is just reading code.
Visible mechanics. The Monitor tab shows the event list as the simulation runs. Students can pause it to continue in single steps — and that's when DES clicks for them. Most tools hide the event list as implementation detail; Quisim treats it as pedagogy.
Share scenarios with the whole class. With an individual or program license, the instructor sets up a class workspace, builds models with parameters exposed (interarrival time, mean service time, number of servers), and makes them available to enrolled students. Students log in, open scenarios in their browser — even in the free demo — and experiment with the parameters. No license needed on the student side.
Then have students build their own models. Most teachers like to go further: Let students build models themselves from the start. Then, DES becomes something students do rather than something they're told about. The finished models are plain text, so submission goes through Moodle or any LMS like any other assignment. This is what licenses unlock.
Built for learning, priced for classrooms. Most simulation tools restrict academic use to keep professionals out of cheap licenses. Quisim is built the other way around — teaching is the primary use case, not a limited side door. Instructor and program licenses are priced to sustain the tool over time.
How Quisim compares
| Enterprise simulators | Python libraries | Quisim | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What students say | "Installation, really?" "Still starting up." "Which setting did I change?" | "I'm stuck on Python." "I don't see anything." "Too abstract for me." "ChatGPT told me so." | "I did it myself!" "I see what it is doing." "Can I do a project?" |
| Time to first running model | Hours, after install and a tutorial | Hours, after a Python bootstrap | Minutes, in any browser, using university login |
| Building a model | Workflow blocks; distributions, params hidden in dialogs | Write Python code, typically with ChatGPT | Distributions, params, stats are blocks too, so the model is fully visible |
| Event list | Hidden as implementation detail | Programmatic only | Visible in the Monitor when animated or in single-step mode. |
| Reading a student submission | Open in the licensed tool; click through dialogs | Read code; styles vary across students | A screenshot is enough at a glance; diff plain text against a reference for details |
| Academic licensing | Restricted student edition | Free, unsupported | Built for teaching |
Free learning experience
The free demo runs the real Quisim engine on 25+ curated scenarios plus any custom scenarios an instructor shares, and even provides a basic modeling kit.
Check out a 3-weeks-course outline using just the free demo →
While the demo doesn't provide the complete 'build-it-yourself' experience, it is enough to get some basic modeling exposure, and learn about queuing models, statistical evaluation, and mechanics like the discrete event list.
| Topic | Demo scenarios |
|---|---|
| Queueing fundamentals | M/M/1, M/M/k, M/D/1, Capacity, Bypass |
| Statistics & confidence intervals | Statistics, Erlang-C, Sensitivity |
| Routing & decisions | Route random, Route to shorter, Choose random, Lineup |
| Service & healthcare | Triage, Renege, Overflow, Two-Step |
| Batching | Pack, Pack→Unpack, Pack+Perform |
Students can freely set the given model parameters, check the expected values from the analytical Erlang-C formula alongside their simulation and watch the two converge — the kind of side-by-side that makes confidence intervals click.
In addition, students can open scenarios shared by their instructor given the individual license. This lets them freely adjust the parameters of arbitrarily customized experiments, even with multiple replications, batching, and confidence intervals.
What students can build themselves
The demo also lets students build simple models from a core set of blocks:
- one each of Arrive, Queue, Perform, and Leave
- two each of RandomExponential, RandomNormal, RandomUniform,
- two each of Chart, Statistics (with arithmetic mean)
- unlimited Number and NumberInput blocks for parameter control.
This is enough to let students give a feel of model building and explain the mechanics of entity arrival, downstream entity blocking, and building an like M/D/k, M/M/k, M/N/k system from scratch. Building unlimited models from the full block library comes with a license.
Licensing
Free demo
CHF 0
For trying Quisim and intro modules.
- 25+ curated example scenarios
- Run shared scenarios of the class instructor
- Learn by experiment with scenario parameters
- Build first models like M/M/k of core block set
Individual
CHF 249/ year
For instructors piloting Quisim in a course.
- Full block library, unlimited model size
- Build and share custom scenarios to free demo users in class
Study program starting at
CHF 2 499/ year
For programs running full DES courses.
- Full block library, unlimited model size
- Build and share models with each other
- All instructors covered
- All students in study program covered
Student license — CHF 99 / year. For students whose study program isn't licensed and who want to use Quisim for a thesis, capstone, or independent project. Full block library, unlimited model size. Requires a university email.
"In my Industrial Engineering program, we have been using Quisim for two years in the module 'Simulation of Business Processes.' For what this module aims to do — introduce discrete event simulation through many concrete application examples — Quisim is an excellent fit, and students really appreciate it. Its ease of use, clearly presented concepts, many built-in examples, and attention to detail make it an ideal platform for teaching."
Dr. Richard Bödi
Program Leader in Industrial Engineering, Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Getting started in your course
Open the demo, run a few scenarios, see whether Quisim fits how you teach. If it does:
For a cursory course or pilot. Use the free demo or use the individual license to share custom scenarios with the class; they open and parameterize them in any browser.
Check out a 3-weeks-course outline using just the free demo →
For a study program, a full DES course, or thesis work. A study program license covers all instructors and students, and empowers all to build their own models, including in thesis and capstone projects.
We're happy to talk through how Quisim fits your curriculum, what assignments other programs have built around it, and how to make the case for institutional adoption.