UQ physicists rev up simulations

Researchers in UQ’s School of Physical Sciences have created a computer program that significantly reduces the development time for mathematical simulations.

The program, eXtensible Multi-Dimensional Simulator (XMDS), can produce a simulation, which would usually take a week to develop, in as little as 10 minutes.

XMDS principal developer Dr Paul Cochrane likens the program to ordering a pizza.

“As long you know what buttons to press then you can quickly get what you ordered,” said Mr Cochrane.

“Most experts have to write the simulations for their equations and this can take ages because you are writing several hundred lines of computer code, which is not easy.”

The core of the program revolves around producing a standardised set of computer code based on a small set of instructions written in a computer programming language called XML.

Dr Cochrane said the program solved the long running problem of standardisation associated with hand coding simulations in physics.

“When one research group claims to have achieved a particular result by numerical simulation, it is often difficult for another research group to duplicate the exact same results,” he said.

“Since XMDS uses a brief and well defined structure, then this problem will no longer exist.”

PhD student Greg Cullecutt originally developed the program after his supervisor, Professor Peter Drummond, recognised that many problems in physics had a similar structure.

“There are a lot of people doing the same stuff, where all they are doing is just reinventing the wheel again and again,” Dr Cochrane said.

“So Peter thought, if there is a general structure then you should be able to simplify and speed up the process by getting a computer to do the hard work.”

Dr Cochrane said the program was not only useful for physics.

It could also be used for simulations in engineering, chemistry, biology, finance and economics.

“It can work in any area as long as a system can be modelled by an equation,” he said.

XMDS is an open source program, which allows anybody to modify the program and is available for free download from www.xmds.org.

Media: For more information, contact Dr Paul Cochrane (telephone 07 3365 3406, email cochrane@physics.uq.edu.au) or Professor Peter Drummond (telephone 07 3365 3404, email dromond@physics.uq.edu.au) or David Ashkanasy at UQ Communications (telephone 07 2265 2339 or d.ashkanasy@uq.edu.au).