Maplesoft Case Studies

Advanced teaching benefits with control hardware and modeling software

2010-03-08T05:00:00

Products supplied and supported by Adept Scientific are providing real teaching and research benefits at Bristol University. Use of a Quanser design control system is challenging students to look beyond the immediate project confines to find new solutions, whilst MapleSim modeling software is aiding postgraduate students in the development of robotic systems.

Chalmers University of Technology uses Maple T.A. to improve student success in mathematics

2010-02-09T05:00:00

Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, is considered one of Sweden’s most distinguished technical universities. The university’s programs are focused on research and teaching within technology and natural science, and mathematics is foundational to all technical programs offered at Chalmers. When the faculty at Chalmers realized that new students were struggling with advanced mathematics, they took immediate action.

Maple is used by Ulysse Nardin to lengthen the running time of new watches

2010-01-18T05:00:00

Claude Bourgeois, an engineering consultant and former Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM) researcher, used Maple to model and optimize barrel springs made of composite materials compatible with deep etching on silicon. The use of composite materials should double the running time, i.e. the operating time of watches when they are at rest.

3-D Hall Sensor Algorithm Developed in Maple Produces a More Efficient Washing Machine Design

2009-07-07T04:00:00

Dr. Frank Allmendinger leads a research and development project team at Marquardt GmbH, a German company that develops and manufactures switches and switching systems. Over the last three years, his team designed an innovative three-dimensional load and imbalance sensor, which is used in a new washing machine model from a well-known company in the "white goods" sector. The Marquardt group used Maple™ in this project. Dr. Allmendinger found Maple to be an invaluable tool, allowing him to work on complex problems such as modeling the magnetic fields, estimating the allowed tolerances for the magnet, and determining whether the tilt of the 3-D-Hall-Sensor module was within a very small tolerance of approximately two degrees.

Finding Faults

2009-06-30T04:00:00

Bob Beasant is an engineer at Kelvatek, a supplier to the Electricity Supply Industry specializing in the low voltage distribution sector. He recently chose Maple™ and MapleSim™ as his preferred toolset because his projects demand superior modeling and simulation technology. He intends to use both tools to help him create new algorithms and improve existing ones in the field of fault location on underground electricity cables.

A Flight into the Future with MapleSim

2009-04-07T04:00:00

Dr. Richard Gran is well placed to appreciate the benefits modern technology has brought to modeling and simulation. As a key member of the NASA team that designed the digital flight control system for the Apollo Lunar Module in the 1960s, he spent many months developing a FORTRAN simulation on an IBM 7090 to verify the design. Now the president and CEO of The Mathematical Analysis Company, he uses MapleSim™ to reduce the time it takes to develop physical models and prototype control systems. "MapleSim saved me many hours of work because the model maps onto the topology of the physical system and the dynamic equations do not have to be developed by hand," he said.

Exploring Chaos and Dynamical Systems with MapleSim

2009-03-16T04:00:00

Dr. Stephen Lynch is a world class leader in the use of mathematical software in teaching and learning, and a renowned expert on dynamical systems and their applications. He teaches a range of courses at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, and has been nominated for a second time by MMU for a National Teaching Fellowship. Dr. Lynch has chosen to feature MapleSim in the second edition of his best-selling book, Dynamical Systems and Applications using Maple. The book introduces readers to the theory of dynamical systems through theoretical and practical examples, all illustrated with programs created with software tools from Maplesoft.

Leading car manufacturer Renault solves unwanted engine noise and vibration using Maple

2009-03-13T02:45:00

When an engine stops, several engine components take part in the process. Components can produce unwanted noise and vibrations when the engine slows down, which can lead to their deterioration. Jean-Louis Ligier, a Research and Development manager at Renault, and his team were tasked with determining the sources of these noises and vibrations in a 2.2 liter 4-cylinder turbo diesel engine. They found Maple to be the most efficient tool to model the engine and determine the source of the unwanted noise. More importantly, they also used Maple to determine a solution to the problem.

Applied mathematician uses Maple to simulate the biomechanics of human bone microstructure

2009-02-11T19:09:00

Bone is a complex tissue, which is highly optimized for biological and mechanical functions. Researchers are currently examining how bone architecture changes with age and how it alters when various pathologies are present or absent. In particular, the prediction of bone fracture remains elusive.

Dr. Maria-Grazia Ascenzi of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), performs research in her Bone Micro-Mechanics laboratory to better understand bone micro-structures. She conducts experimental biomechanics on bone micro-specimens and uses the powerful computational abilities of Maple to model the percentages and orientations of the various elementary components and the details of fundamental micro-level units of compact bone.

MapleSim used in the field of renewable energy engineering

2009-02-10T04:54:00

David Parker, an engineer with many years of experience working in electronics engineering and related fields, has always been interested in the topic of renewable energy, particularly solar energy. For a recent course on Laplace Transforms and Applications, Parker wrote a paper on the analysis in the s-domain of a series RLC circuit. In the paper, he predicts the response of a bandpass filter RLC circuit using theoretical Laplace transform techniques, and then compares his calculated results with simulated measurements from MapleSim and with the actual physical response of a breadboarded circuit. The resultant MapleSim simulations for frequency, impulse, step, and ramp responses matched the theoretical predictions extremely well.

“[My work] would have been much more difficult without Maple and MapleSim,” said Parker.

Building Better Mathematicians

2009-01-24T04:33:00

Math software technology from Maplesoft™ is helping Professor Roger Kraft to better teach math students at Purdue University Calumet. He uses Maple™, the award-winning math tool, to give students a greater understanding of the subject, help clarify concepts taught in the classroom, and deliver an interactive medium for exploring and visualizing functions.

Students and lecturers solve assessment problems using Maple T.A.

2008-12-18T18:50:00

The marking of mathematical questions is time consuming and prone to inconsistency, particularly when assessing problem-solving skills. At the University of Portsmouth Maple T.A., a web-based system developed by Maplesoft for creating tests and assignments and automatically assessing student performance, has not only enabled the efficient and accurate marking of examinations papers, but has also allowed their peer moderation by students.

Maple and Moodle Transform Math Teaching at the University of Turin:The E-Learning Project of the Faculty of Sciences

2008-12-18T18:34:00

The Faculty of Sciences at the University of Turin started in 2007 the Project “E-learning and interactive teaching”, financially supported by the Compagnia di SanPaolo of Turin. This Project is aimed at extending the e-learning services offered by the Faculty to its students and enriching the traditional teaching of Mathematics with the new technologies available nowadays. One of the highlights of this project has been the use of the Maplesoft suite of products (Maple, MapleNet, Maple TA), making them the “core” of the preparation and distribution of the didactic material. Maplesoft products were made available mainly within the open source e-learning platform “Moodle”, widely adopted in Italian Universities.

Engineering Innovator Creates Unique Applications Using MapleSim

2008-12-05T04:13:00

MapleSim is a high-performance multi-domain modeling and simulation tool that is based on an intuitive block-diagram design. It allows engineers to simulate complex systems quickly by dragging, dropping, and connecting a wide range of pre-built physical components from multiple physical domains. It also provides an environment for creating new components.

Dr. Ed Melcarek, an experienced engineer based in Ontario, Canada, with a flair for creating small, unique, and very intriguing technical applications, recently discovered MapleSim. He exploited MapleSim’s innovative user interface and powerful engine to model the solutions in two creative projects.

Financial Engineers at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International Use Maple in Multi-asset Product Development

2008-10-02T19:22:00

The latest release of Maple offers quantitative finance professionals a platform for maximizing their productivity and efficiency. Maple’s powerful mathematical engine and sophisticated algorithms deliver a rich environment for modeling financial products and for process optimization. “In the world of financial options, analytical results are not always obvious, and testing for their existence can be a tedious and lengthy process. Employing Maple makes it very different; if a symbolic solution exists, Maple finds it quickly and correctly,” said Igor Hlivka of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International. He recently developed a series of applications using Maple for multi-asset product development and for deriving semi-analytical solutions to non-standard options where multivariate stochastic processes play a determining role

RMIT University in Australia transforms teaching and assessment using Maple

2008-09-16T18:32:00

With the rapid advancement of technology and the introduction of powerful software tools, engineers are increasingly using software products for computation and design. To prepare their engineering students for the job market, the faculty at RMIT University in Melbourne faced the challenge of introducing several software products into the engineering curriculum. It was Maple from Maplesoft, the world-leading tool for solving complex mathematical problems and creating rich technical documents that met their curriculum needs and proved to be most effective in their teaching.

Electricité de France uses Maple to reduce secondary circuit risks in nuclear power plants

2008-09-15T16:16:00

Maple was used by National Center of Nuclear Equipment (CNEN) of Electricité de France (EDF) in France to develop, validate, and research a predictive maintenance software program. The EDF software, called BRT-CICERO, is used to develop inspection programs for pipe networks in the engine rooms of French nuclear power plants.“We have been very impressed with the speed of Maple’s mathematical computation, graphical strength, and very strong interactive document interface. The automatic code generation, directly from equations, allowed us to automate and considerably speed up development of our validation tools,” commented Mr. Bouvier, who leads application development.

Maple Helps Improve Power Losses in DC-DC Converters

2008-08-16T02:22:00

Everyone from business travelers to weekend warriors understands the importance of battery life and the frustration of dealing with drained laptop batteries. Because approximately 200 million computers are manufactured in the world each year, this issue is not trivial. Alan Elbanhawy, a power systems industry expert, investigates ways to optimize battery life in notebook computers.He worked with the widely popular engineering and mathematics software Maple from Maplesoft to develop three applications dealing in great depth with power loss mechanisms in these converters. The research helped engineers better understand the power losses inherent in these devices and enabled them to refine their design process, save energy, and help the environment.

Maple helps research next-generation seat belt restraints aimed at reducing passenger injury in automotive collisions

2008-07-14T04:00:00

Pre-crash shoulder belt tensioning is a new technology designed to reduce automotive crash injuries.Pre-crash tensioning technology increases the opportunity to secure a passenger safely before a crash. Sensors and logic, designed to anticipate a crash, activate a motorized seat belt retractor that secures a shoulder belt around an occupant before the crash. Craig Good, a partner at Collision Analysis (Calgary) Ltd. and Ph.D. graduate at the University of Calgary used Maplesoft products to create a 2-D occupant model, using experimentally measured data. Once the model was created, it gave Good the flexibility to evaluate different scenarios to optimize the system.

Professor of Mathematics redefines math education with the help of Maple

2008-07-07T18:02:00

“Mathematics is not old or static; it is alive and students need to experience it,”exclaims Professor Laureano Gonzalez-Vega, describing his philosophy on math education. In his years of teaching, Prof. Gonzalez-Vega has realized that students spend a lot of time trying to understand the mathematic and scientific formulas that are the basis for concepts in scientific or engineering programs, often without much success. He introduced Maple in his courses and Prof. Gonzalez-Vega noticed positive changes in his students’ approach and in their results. With the new software, the students found it much easier and faster to solve problems and understand the mathematics.