Problem Solving Environments
Projects, Products, Applications and Tools

We would like to include links to your PSE or project.
Send us information about
your project, and we will consider adding it to the list.

R&D PROJECTS AND PRODUCTS
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CUMULVS (Collaborative User Migration, User Library for
Visualization and Steering) is
a software infrastructure for the development of collaborative
environments. It supports interactive visualization and remote
computational steering of distributed applications by multiple
collaborators, and provides a mechanism for constructing fault-tolerant,
migrating applications in heterogeneous distributed computing environments.
CUMULVS lets the engineer/scientist concentrate on the problem solving rather
than the computer issues.
cumulvs@msr.epm.ornl.gov
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Diffpack
The goal of this project is to develop a fully object-oriented
framework for solution of partial differential equations. The first
release of Diffpack is now available. A new public release of
Diffpack is in progress and will be available 'some time' after
the summer.
info@nobjects.com
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EDSS
The Environmental Decision Support System (EDSS) is a problem solving
environment that provides an advanced modeling and analysis system for
environmental scientists, engineers, policy makers, and educators.
EDSS's design goals include allowing modelers to incorporate new
science with minimal effort, providing flexibility to model diverse
issues and scales, helping decision makers reliably generate and
understand more information with less effort, and contributing to a
community modeling and analysis system. To achieve these goals, EDSS
includes a paradigm, components, and tools for building air quality
models from interchangeable components; data analysis and manipulation
tools; an extremely fast emissions processing package; a graphical
computation manager; and an experimental optimization-based strategy
development tool.
envpro@ncsc.org
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ELLPACK
is a very high level, portable system for solving
elliptic boundary value problems.The ELLPACK language is an
easy-to-learn extension of Fortran.
Elias Houstis and John R. Rice,
acc@cs.purdue.edu
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ELSO
We are developing an environment (ELSO) for large scale
optimization problems that only requires the user to provide
code to evaluate a partially separable function. This novel approach
eliminates the need to provide the gradient and sparsity pattern.
Jorge Moré,
more@mcs.anl.gov
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FlexPDE
is a flexible and powerful general purpose software system for
obtaining numerical solutions to the coupled sets of partial
differential equation involving two space dimensions plus time.
PDE Solutions Inc,
sales@PDESolutions.com
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HiQ
is a technical computing environment where you build
interactive notebooks for ActiveMath and data visualization applications.
HiQ integrates math user interface controls, numerical analysis,
matrix computation, and graphics into one environment where problems
and solutions are expressed in a scripting language built for mathematics.
National Instruments,
hiq_support@natinst.com
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KBF
The Kalman Filter Visual Interface Pack provides a
visual oriented interface for Kalman filter design and analysis.
The KBF interface simplifies filter and smoother design by dividing
the design process into simple steps which are automated by the windowing
system.
Beau Paisley, Harmonic Software Inc,
harmonic@world.std.com
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LSA: The Linear System Analyzer is a problem solving
environment (PSE) for solving large, sparse, unstructured linear
systms of equations which occur in computational science and
engineering problems. The components currently in the LSA include
I/O, filters, and solvers. The LSA usage model is a visual
programming, data flow model with matrix input files either in the
Matrix Market or Harwell/Boeing format. Randel Brambley.
bramley@cs.indiana.edu
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MathViews
(from the MathWizards )
is a comprehensive, easy-to-use, fully interactive, math interpreter.
It provides easy access to: matrix and linear algebra, digital
signal processing, instrument control, image processing,
time series analysis, data visualization and waveform display and editing.
It is highly compatible with the matlab syntax but offers
several features not available in Matlab : integrated
development environment with built-in debugger, AutoAssign, separate
input, output and program windows.
info@mathwizards.com
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MATLAB
is a technical computing environment for high-performance
numeric computation and visualization. MATLAB integrates numerical
analysis, matrix computation, signal processing, and graphics in an
easy-to-use environment where problems and solutions are expressed just
as they are written mathematically - without traditional programming.
MathWorks, Inc,
info@mathworks.com
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MATRIXx
The MATRIXx product family is a complete solution for graphical
modeling and simulation, analysis, automatic code generation, testing
and implementation for any control system.
Integrated Systems Inc,
ideas@isi.com
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NetSolve
is a client-server application that enables users to solve complex
scientific problem remotely by providing access to
hardware and software computational
resources distributed across a network. NetSolve searches for
resources on a network, chooses the best one
available, and using retry for fault-tolerance solves a problem, and
returns the answers to the user. Goals of the
NetSolve project include 1)ease-of-use, 2) efficient use of
resources, and 3) the ability to integrate arbitrary software components
as resources.
Interfaces to Fortran, C, Matlab, and Java enable users to
access and use NetSolve more easily.
Henri Casonova and Jack Dongarra,
casanova@cs.utk.edu
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NPAC Site
Slides of a talk about Problem Solving Environments from Simulation,
Medicine and Defense using the Web. PSE requirements are contrasted for four
areas: healthcare, defense, distance eduction, and computational science
and engineering.
Geoffrey Fox and Wojtek Furmanski
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Octave
is a high-level language, primarily intended for
numerical computations. It provides a convenient command line interface
for solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically. Octave was
originally intended to be companion software for an undergraduate-level
textbook on chemical reactor design being written by James B. Rawlings of
the University of Wisconsin and John G. Ekerdt of the University of Texas.
The math department at the University of Texas has been using it for
teaching differential equations and linear algebra.
John W. Eaton,
jwe@bevo.che.wisc.edu
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O-Matrix
is an interactive analysis and visualization
environment. O-Matrix provides a broad range of plotting
capabilities, an integrated matrix language, and RAD development
tools for scientific, engineering, and mathematics applications.
Download a free Light version of O-Matrix from the Harmonic home page.
Beau Paisley, Harmonic Software Inc,
harmonic@world.std.com
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PARADIFE
is a Problem Solving Environment for Partial Differential Equation
Problems in two and three dimensions. The basic modules of the system include
GUIs, graphical automatic mappers and decomposers, visualization tools and
selected parallel libraries. It also incorporates the most recent developments
in portable parallel programming.
FIRST Informatics, Patras, Greece
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PDELab
is a unified, interactive system which provides a framework for
building PDE Problem Solving Environments. The components are the editors,
tools and libraries which are used to define, solve and analyze PDE-based
applications.
Elias Houstis and John R. Rice,
acc@cs.purdue.edu
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PDEase
solves PDEs numerically by finite elements and is unique in
five ways: (1) Flexible: It solves a very wide range of nonlinear systems
(2) Friendly: remarkably simple input, (3) Automated, (4) Preprocessing:
Uses Macsyma for complicated equations or curvilinear coordinates,
(5) Notebooks: With the PC version you can create documents with MS-Windows.
Richard Petti,
petti@macsyma.com
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PDE2D
is the "sequel" to IMSL's PDE/PROTRAN. It solves general
nonlinear, time-dependent, steady-state and eigenvalue systems
of PDEs, in general two-dimensional regions and in three-dimensional boxes.
It has an interactive user interface and extensive graphical output
capabilities. PDE2D uses up to 4th degree isoparametric triangular finite
elements or tri-cubic Hermite elements, and adaptive refinement.
Granville Sewell,
xxvd004@math.utep.edu
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PDESOL
solves 1-D systems of partial and ordinary differential equations,
with minimal effort to specify, solve, and visualize the solution. Its
power and flexibility come from the methods in the books by W. E. Schiesser.
Numerica.
support@pdesol.com
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PDESolve
allows descriptions of the PDE and its solution method at the level
of differential operators and their discretization methods. It deals
with complex geometries, vector functions and operators, and multiple
coupled equations.
Beam Technologies, Inc,
info@beamtech.com
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//ELLPACK
is a problem solving and development environment for
PDE-based applications on multi-computer platforms.
The open architecture is designed in five layers:
an interactive graphical interface, a high level language interface, a
fortran interface, an execution environment, and a PDE system solver library
repository.
Elias Houstis and John R. Rice,
acc@cs.purdue.edu
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PSEWare
is a "Toolkit for Building PSEs". This is a multi-institutional,
multidisciplinary research project on PSEs focused on symbolic computation,
user interfaces and collaborative technologies for parallel object-oriented
programming.
Randy Brambley and Dennis Gannon,
brambley@cs.indiana.edu
gannon@cs.indiana.edu
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RLAB
is an interactive, interpreted scientific programming environment.
It supports a very high level language which is intended for
fast prototyping and program development, as
well as easy data visualization and processing.
RLAB is "Matlab-like", building upon the features of the Matlab language
and providing improved language syntax and semantics.
The improved syntax allows more expressions and reduced ambiguities;
improved variable scoping facilitates creation of larger programs
and program libraries. A heterogeneous associative
array has been added to allow users to create and
operate on arbitrary data structures. Rlab is copyrighted with the
GNU General Public License, and is free (in the GNU sense) for all to use
Ian Searle,
ians@eskimo.com
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SciComp
is a developer of automatic software synthesis tools.
Our current focus is on complex applications involving mathematical
modeling. We provide tools that enable users to generate scientific
computing codes without the laborious and error-prone manual
programming process. Designers need only describe the equations they
are trying to solve, the variables over which they want to see solutions,
and the interfaces to inputs (e.g., meshing routines), outputs (e.g.,
visualization packages) and data analysis components. Our products then
produce codes in languages such as Fortran, C or Fortran90 that are
optimized for the specific application and target machines.
Elaine Kant and Stanly Steinberg,
info@scicomp.com
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SCI-group
The Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) group has projects in
geometric modeling, numerical analysis, parallel computing, and scientific
visualization. The first PSE
is SCIRun which allows the interactive construction,
debugging and steering of large scale scientific computations. One
can design and modify simulations interactively
via a dataflow programming model.
SWIG is a tool for quickly integrating collections of C/C++ functions with
interfaces defined using Tcl/Tk, Perl, Python, and Guile. SWIG is simple
and well suited for integrating simulation, data analysis, and visualization
components into a single package.
Chris Johnson,
crj@cs.utah.edu
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STATISTICA is an integrated statistical data analysis, graphics
and data base management system with a wide selection of
specialized modules (e.g., for social scientists, biomedical
researchers and engineers). STATISTICA is one of the most widely
used and available statistical PSEs.
statsoft.com

APPLICATIONS
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BioSoftlab
is a virtual laboratory that encompasses all research
activities occuring in the scientific laboratory environment, both
"wet" (experimental) and "dry" (simulation). It is a
software layer above the experimental and computational processes which
exist in the physical laboratory side by side. The virtual laboratory
attempts to bring these two models of scientific research together in a
way that allows them to interact with each other, so that feedback from
one can enhance and improve the methodologies applied in the other.
Elias Houstis and John R. Rice,
acc@cs.purdue.edu
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Geodes
Elements Engineering/Scientific Workspace is a problem-formulating and
solving tool that is very useful to mathematics, engineering, statistics,
and computer science. Elements implements representations of
multidimensional, recursive, deforming geometry, geodesic computation,
plotting, and 3D visualization. Geodes is the Netlib program.
Elements Research,
mailto:info@elesoft.com
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Checking Intelligent Material Design
We are collaborating to develop parallel adaptive
methods for solving the Local Density Approximation to the
Time-dependent Schroedinger equation. Such ``computational alchemy''
simulations show promise in expanding the predictive capabilities for
modeling technologically important chemical processes.
Scott B. Bade,
baden@cs.ucsd.edu

TOOLS
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Cogito
This project facilitates software production for applications in
advanced scientific computing by making it possible to write codes on a high
level of abstraction. The focus is on methods for solving time-dependent
PDE problems. Included are (a) object-oriented tools for Fortran and C++,
and (b) methods for automatic parallelization of computational methods in
this area.
Michael Thune,
cognito@tdb.uu.se
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Cristall Best Value Solver
This is a numerical software package with the usability of a spreadsheet
and the versatility of a math package.
Tony Diserens,
tony@cristall.co.u
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Guide to Available Mathematical Software
is a cross-index and virtual repository of mathematical and statistical software
components of use in computational science and engineering. This service is a
product of NIST work on methodology and tools to improve access to reusable
computer software available for use in mathematical modeling and statistical
analysis. Includes HotGAMS! , a new Java-enabled browser.
Ronald Boisvert,
boisvert@nist.gov
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Linux
See how wonderful the Linux environment is for scientific applications.
Most people will be amazed by the power and usefulness of these
software. Included are the URL, version, released date of the packages in this
list such that you have an idea of how offen a package is maintained.
Scientific Software: Mohit Tawarmalani,
tawarmal@uiuc.edu
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MATCOM
is a Matlab(R) to C++ compiler and a matrix library. The
translator creates C++ code from Matlab code which is compiled by the
project manger into an executable.
MathTools Support,
support@mathtools.com
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MatheMatrix
MatheMatrix, Inc. provides high performance In and Out-Of-Core,
Dense, Direct Solve matrix algebra Fortran libraries for both
Real Skyline and Complex Full matrices. Simulations may also be
solved orders of magnitude faster than LAPACK. Available for various Unix
based workstations, clusters/farms, MPP's, and Cray YMP's.
rbolster@mmatrix.com
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MENUS-PGG
Mapping Environment for Numerical Unstructured & Structures -
Parallel Grid Generation MENUS-PGG is a problem solving environment (PSE)
for developing parallel algorithms that generate structured and
unstructured static and adaptive grids (or meshes) required for the
implementation of scalable parallel partial differential equation (PDE)
solvers based on domain decomposition methods. MENUS-PGG generates and
maintains grids on the processors of parallel/distributed systems and
combines the most valuable aspects of the data parallel programming model
with the flexibility of the task parallel programming model.
Nikos Chrisochoides, Geoffrey Fox, Joe Thompson
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NEOS
Optimization in the real world - how practical problems are
formulated as optimization problems. Information on software packages
from the book by Mori and Wright, updated for the NEOS Guide.
Optimization Software Guide (Jorge J. Mori and Stephen J. Wright,
SIAM Publications, 1993).
Jorge J. Moré and Stephen J. Wright,
more@mcs.anl.gov
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Oxford Parallel Applications Centre
University of Oxford Parallel Applications Centre. Oxford Parallel is
pioneering a simple but highly effective new approach to the programming of
parallel computers. A BSP Programming Environment.
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PETSc
PETSc, the Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation
is a large suite of data structures and routines for both uni- and
parallel-processor numerical solution of large-scale scientific
problems modeled by partial differential equations, using
implicit discretization methods. PETSc 2.0 is fully usable from
Fortran, C/C++, and runs on most machines.
S. Balay, W. Gropp, L. Curfman McInnes, B. Smith,
petsc-maint@mcs.anl.gov
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SSEC Visualization
The Visualization Project at the Space Science and Engineering
Center (SSEC) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison focuses on making
advanced visualization techniques useful to Earth scientists in their
daily work. The VisAD system enables scientists to interactively steer
and visualize their computations. Mesa is a 3-D graphics library with an
API which is very similar to that of OpenGL. This software is
distributed under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License.
Bill Hibbard and Brian Paul,
whibbard@macc.wisc.edu
brianp@ssec.wisc.edu

SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS
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Macsyma
Macsyma is a comprehensive symbolic, numerical and graphical math
software system which is renowned for mathematical power, exceptional ease
of use, and attractive scientific notebooks. It has the MathTips(tm)
Advisor, hypertext descriptions, command templates, and 1,000
executable demonstrations.
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Maple
Maple V is a powerful mathematical problem-solving
and visualization system used world-wide in education, research, and
industry. Its principal strength is its symbolic problem solving algorithms.
Unlike conventional math software, which can only work with
floating-point numbers, Maple V can solve problems involving formal
mathematical definitions and return answers as mathematical objects.
Waterloo Maple Inc,
info_web@maplesoft.com
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Mathematica
Mathematica has revolutionized the way people work and learn.
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Symbolic Net
Symbolic Net = Symbolic Mathematical Computation Information Center.
This document is a starting point for discovering information about Symbolic
and Algebraic Computation (SAC), also known as Computer Algebra (CA). It is
maintained by Kent State University, but it links to information supplied and
updated by individuals and cooperating sites.
Paul Wang,
pwang@mcs.kent.edu

Comments, questions, suggestions?
Contact Ann Christine Catlin
acc@cs.purdue.edu.