Microsoft wants to help model the world

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 10:23

IT Industry - Development

Microsoft has announced an ambitious project to help scientists, engineers and others create and run simulation models of real-world phenomena.

Modelling has a long history, but incorporating all the relevant data and running the model in and acceptably short time can be a challenge. Increasing amounts of data are being captured in digital form, and better data generally means better results from the model.

Microsoft's Technical Computing initiative aims to promote the use of modelling to solve real-world problems.

"One day soon, complicated tasks like building a sophisticated computer model that would typically take a team of advanced software programmers months to build and days to run, will be accomplished in a single afternoon by a scientist, engineer or analyst working at the PC on their desktop," said Bob Muglia, president of Microsoft's server and tools business.

"And as technology continues to advance, these models will become more complete and accurate in the way they represent the world. This will speed our ability to test new ideas, improve processes and advance our understanding of systems," he explained.

Examples of the way the technology is being applied include modelling the spread of malaria with more detailed parameters and getting the results in less than an hour rather than a day; modelling the flight dynamics of a spacecraft up to eight times faster; and reducing the time taken to create actuarial models by as much as 99%.

What does Microsoft actually plan to do? Please read on.