Computing in Science & Engineering

Our special theme this issue is the computer programming language Python and the increasing role it plays in scientific projects. Free and universally available, Python comes with a vast standard library containing support for nearly every area of computer science. An even more extensive set of third-party tools and modules covers additional tasks, from managing a Web site to doing a fast Fourier ... View full abstract»

Python is an excellent "steering" language for scientific codes written in other languages. However, with additional basic tools, Python transforms into a high-level language suited for scientific and engineering code that's often fast enough to be immediately useful but also flexible enough to be sped up with additional extensions. View full abstract»

Python offers basic facilities for interactive work and a comprehensive library on top of which more sophisticated systems can be built. The IPython project provides on enhanced interactive environment that includes, among other features, support for data visualization and facilities for distributed and parallel computation View full abstract»

Educators at an institution in Germany have started using Python to teach computational physics. The author describes how graphical visualizations also play an important role, which he illustrates here with a few simple examples View full abstract»

Researchers at Cornell University have built an open source software system to model biomolecular reaction networks. SloppyCell is written in Python and uses third-party libraries extensively, but it also does some fun things with on-the-fly code generation and parallel programming. View full abstract»

The author describes how Python has helped scientists calibrate and analyze data from the Hubble Space Telescope, first as a means of scripting legacy applications, and, more recently, as a way of developing new applications in Python itself. View full abstract»

This article discusses the creation of a python module for object-oriented modeling and control design of flexible robots using the transfer matrix method (TMM). The authors overcame several theoretical hurdles to apply the TMM to practical flexible robots and have experimentally validated the python module's modeling capabilities. View full abstract»

The authors describe how they use Python for nanophotonics research-specifically, they describe using it for electromagnetic modeling, mask design, and process simulation View full abstract»

This article describes two Python modules for solving partial differential equations (PDEs): PyCC is designed as a Matlab-like environment for writing algorithms for solving PDEs, and SyFi creates matrices based on symbolic mathematics, code generation, and the finite element method. View full abstract»

The authors describe a package for analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional MRI (fMRI) data, which is part of the Neuroimaging in Python (NIPY) project. An international group of leading statisticians, physicists, programmers, and neuroimaging methodologists ore developing NIPY for wider use View full abstract»

Python offers a unique capability in the field of geographic information system applications because it helps developers create multipurpose Internet maps. This article discusses PDF maps in particular. View full abstract»

An important class of systems - billiards - can show a wide variety of dynamical behavior. Using tools developed in Python, researchers can interactively study the complexity of these dynamics. Such behavior is directly reflected in properties of the corresponding quantum systems, such as eigenvalue statistics or the structure of eigenfunctions View full abstract»

The authors discuss modeling's role in understanding the ice-ocean system, as well as its importance in predicting the future state of Arctic sea ice. In doing so, this article presents results from a hierarchy of models of different complexity, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they could help forecast the future state of the ice-ocean system. View full abstract»

The authors' interdisciplinary computational methods course uses Python and associated numerical and visualization libraries to enable students to implement simulations for several different course modules, which highlight the breadth and flexibility of Python-powered computational environments. View full abstract»

Last issue's installment of Your Homework Assignment featured the final problem in Dianne O'Leary's popular long-running department. In this issue, she offers a partial solution to it View full abstract»

This installment of computing prescriptions illustrates how complex arithmetic can simplify algorithms in two-dimensional Cartesian vector space as well as how to make difficult numerical integrals tractable. In other words, computer languages for scientific applications should support complex arithmetic. View full abstract»

Matplotlib is a 2D graphics package used for Python for application development, interactive scripting,and publication-quality image generation across user interfaces and operating systems View full abstract»

Everyone who's ever written a program must have wondered at some point how so very many really sneaky bugs managed to creep into the code. Some errors, of course, are merely typing mistakes - even a moderate-sized program consists of several thousand characters, each of which must be correct. But others are of a much different and more subtle character and can persist for years before being expose... View full abstract»