The OpenScience Project | Open source scientific software

New Software Links

Posted on May 25, 2007 by Dan Gezelter

Scientific Software Some cool new user-submitted software links today:

SAGE is math software that supports research and teaching in algebra, geometry, number theory, cryptography, numerical computation, and related areas. It looks very useful.
CAE Linux is an entire Linux distribution designed specifically for computer aided engineering. It has pre-compiled packages for Salome and Code Aster.
Elmer is a finite element code for multiphysical Problems. Elmer includes physical models of fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, electromagnetics, heat transfer and acoustics, for example. These are described by partial differential equations which Elmer solves by the Finite Element Method (FEM).
qGIS or Quantum GIS, is a qt-based user-friendly Geographic Information System (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. QGIS supports vector, raster, and database formats. QGIS lets you browse and create map data on your computer. It supports many common spatial data formats (e.g. ESRI ShapeFile, geotiff). QGIS supports plugins to do things like display tracks from your GPS.
PostGIS adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. In effect, PostGIS “spatially enables” the PostgreSQL server, allowing it to be used as a backend spatial database for geographic information systems (GIS), much like ESRI’s SDE or Oracle’s Spatial extension.

As always, we welcome user-suggestions for software to link to. Simply surf to the appropriate subject area in the Software section of this site and click on “Add a new link to this page”.

[tags]open source, scientific, software[/tags]

Posted in Science, Software | 2 Comments

EquPlus looks like a pretty neat resource. They have a large library of equations from many mathematically-related fields. Each equation can be cut-and-pasted into your documents in LaTeX, MathType, or MathML code. There are also Constants, SI Units, Symbols, and Unit Conversions.

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Scratch! Open source programming for kids

Posted on May 16, 2007 by Dan Gezelter

I spent about 2 hours last night playing around with a new programming language called Scratch, which was designed for kids. You snap together programs from logical building blocks that you can drag over from a programming palette. There’s also a “stage” where the sprites you are programming can move around. In a matter of about 10 minutes a bright kid can have a functional program up and running. It reminds me a bit of Logo, but honestly, this is much much better.

Scratch is an incredibly powerful teaching tool, but that isn’t the coolest thing about it. The absolute coolest thing is that the designers have made it incredibly easy to share the programs with other users on the web site. Kids can preview (as Java applets) the programs other kids have written, and then download and tweak the code for those programs. Think of it as sourceforge for the pre-teen set. The programming environment itself is cool, but the ease of sharing the code, and the default assumption that the kids will want to share their code is revolutionary.

They’ve even got plans for a hardware sensor board that can be accessed directly from the Scratch window. There are currently Mac and Windows versions and a Linux version in the works. I hope the developers can be convinced to release the code to the Scratch application itself!

Scratch is simply fun to play with. And my kids are going to have a very cool tool to learn basic programming.

[tags]software, fun, education, programming[/tags]

Posted in education, Fun, Software | 10 Comments

Biochemistry with the Stars!

Posted on April 14, 2007 by Dan Gezelter

I know it isn’t, but boy do I wish this was true:

via the always wonderful Pharyngula

Posted in Fun | 1 Comment

Geopsy & Dinver: processing of ambient vibration recordings

Posted on March 16, 2007 by Dan Gezelter

Geopsy and Dinver are distributed in Sesarray package initiated during European project SESAME (2004). Geopsy is a graphical user interface and a core library to handle seismic signals (especially long ones). Signals can be displayed and processed (filter, fft, taper, merge, …). Additionally, various specialized modules are provided for processing ambient vibration recordings. Dinver is a graphical environment and a core library for stochastic inversion problems (Conditional Neighbourhood Algorithm). Again, the structure is modular. The first module being developed for the inversion of dispersion curves and associated objects.
Find Geopsy & Dinver: processing of ambient vibration recordings at: http://www.geopsy.org

Posted in Geology and Geophysics | Leave a comment

GQR

Posted on February 26, 2007 by Dan Gezelter

GQR (Generic Qualitative Reasoner) is a solver for binary qualitative constraint networks. GQR takes a calculus description and one or more constraint networks as input, and tries to solve the networks using the path consistency method and backtracking. Both spatial calculi, e.g., RCC-5 and RCC-8, and temporal ones, like Allen’s interval algebra, are supported. New logics can be added to the system using a simple text format; no programming is necessary.
Find GQR at: https://sfbtr8.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/R4LogoSpace/Resources/GQR

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Leave a comment

Salome

Posted on February 4, 2007 by Dan Gezelter

SALOME is a free software that provides a generic platform for Pre and Post-Processing for numerical simulation. It is based on an open and flexible architecture made of reusable components available as free software. It is open-source (LGPL), and you can download both the sourcecode and the executables from this site. Salome Platform: * Supports interoperability between CAD modeling and computation software (CAD-CAE link) * Makes easier the integration of new components on heterogeneous systems for numerical computation * Sets the priority to multi-physics coupling between computation software * Provides a generic user interface, user-friendly and efficient, which helps to reduce the costs and delays of carrying out the studies * Reduces training time to the specific time for learning the software solution which has been based on this platform * All functionalities are accessible through the programmatic integrated Python console
Find Salome at: http://www.salome-platform.org/

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Code Aster

Posted on February 4, 2007 by Dan Gezelter

Code Aster is a genaral purpose FEA code. It has the ability to solve problems in non-linear thermo-mechanics, coupled fluid-structure dynamics, sismic/non-linear explicit dynamics, contacts, and visco-plasticity.
Find Code Aster at: http://www.code-aster.org/

Posted in Engineering | Leave a comment

JTS Topology Suite

Posted on January 29, 2007 by Dan Gezelter

The JTS Topology Suite is an API of 2D spatial predicates and functions. It has the following design goals: * JTS conforms to the Simple Features Specification for SQL published by the Open GIS Consortium * JTS provides a complete, consistent, robust implementation of fundamental 2D spatial algorithms * JTS is fast enough for production use * JTS is written in 100% pure JavaTM * JTS is open source (under the LGPL license)
Find JTS Topology Suite at: http://www.vividsolutions.com/jts/jtshome.htm

Posted in Topology | Leave a comment

OpenScience Music

Posted on December 15, 2006 by Dan Gezelter

Jonathan Coulton‘s music is about as close as one can get to the perfect accompaniment to the OpenScience project. He’s got songs like Code Monkey about the lives and times of coders, and he’s got the best song about fractals ever written: Mandelbrot Set which actually contains the formula for a fractal (including recursion!) in the lyrics. My favorite song, however, is the new internet phenomenon about an interoffice memo from your Zombie coworkers: Re Your Brains.

I’m finding his songs incredibly smart with lots of little lyrical and musical easter eggs. If that wasn’t enough, Jonathan’s songs are released with Creative Commons licenses and without DRM of any sort. In short, he’s the closest we’ve got to an open source muse.

Go give his a listen and buy his songs!

(I’m sure Jonathan’s heard this from a billion people by now, but his formula in the Mandelbrot Set song is actually the formula for the Julia Set. The Mandelbrot set includes something slightly different; the Mandelbrot set includes those points as c is scanned over the complex plane for which the Julia set iterated by z = z² + c is connected.)

Forget I said that. I’m just amazed someone can make a good song that includes recursive algorithms in the chorus…

[tags]music, mathematics, code, science, creative commons[/tags]

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