MaplePrimes - Maplesoft Blog - Posts by Jim Cooper

Maplesoft: 30 Years and Going Strong

jcooper — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 13:26:00 Z

At Maplesoft, we are excited to be celebrating our 30^th year of incorporation. This anniversary is a tremendous milestone for us. As a leading provider of mathematics-based software solutions for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), this longevity attests to our ability to grow along with changing market conditions, to continually enhance the quality of our offerings and strengthen our partnerships with industry leaders.

As a company, it is our goal to actively connect and partner with our users and industry leaders to advance STEM education and continue to revolutionize engineering design processes. When it comes to academics, we believe our partnerships and outreach initiatives help improve STEM education, develop and enhance digital learning tools and foster online education. To that end, Maplesoft is an Affiliate Member of the Fields Institute, Educational Outreach Champion of Perimeter Institute, and Technology Partner of the American Math Society’s “Who Wants to be a Mathematician” student competition. On the commercial side, we work closely with our commercial partners to seamlessly integrate our technology with complementary tools. Our relationships with prominent companies such as Rockwell Automation, B&R, Altair and more, allow us to continue leading this charge.

At Maplesoft, we work continuously to improve our technology offerings by developing new products and enhancing our existing technology. Maple 2018, the newest version of our flagship product Maple, offers new and improved features to benefit all users, no matter what they use Maple for. It provides an environment where students and instructors can enrich the classroom experience, researchers can accelerate their projects and engineers can refine their calculation management processes. Möbius, our online courseware platform, enables instructors to author rich content, explore important STEM concepts using engaging, interactive applications, visualize problems and solutions, and test students’ understanding by answering questions that are graded instantly.

On the engineering side, we are revolutionizing the engineering design process using Digital Twins, which are virtual machine designs created in MapleSim, Maplesoft’s modeling and simulation software. By taking a virtual approach to machine-level system integration, engineers can commission faster, earlier, and with less risk.

Maplesoft has come a long way since our humble beginnings as a research project at the University of Waterloo. Our website features a timeline that provides insights and information on our incredible journey. The company was built on a foundation of creativity and passion for mathematics and we have worked hard to preserve that legacy. The growth experienced over the past 30 years, along with the drive of our global employee and partner base, will ensure Maplesoft continues to be a driving force in the world of online education and design engineering long into the future.

We invite you to join us as we continue our journey towards new and exciting developments and innovations.

Happy Birthday to Maplesoft!

Jim Cooper — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:57:58 Z

It’s hard to believe, but Maplesoft as a company has reached the quarter-century mark. Twenty-five years ago this month, the founders launched this company as a vehicle to market, distribute and support a symbolic computation program they had created called Maple. They had...

Selling a Company: Free Advice

Jim Cooper — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:27:49 Z

Selling a company is emotionally wrenching. It was even more intensive for us at Maplesoft since we had a large number of founders who had been actively involved with the company for 20+ years. The decision for founders to sell a company so that it can move to the next stage is truly massive.

We had the luxury of a number of suitors with essentially equivalent initial financial offers, but this also destined us for a long process with lots of discussion and many twists and detours along the way. I remember the saying: that which does not kill you makes you stronger ;-). This was also my 2nd time going through the full process and maybe I can offer some advice to novices, noting the old saying that free advice is not always worth the price.

Maplesoft Announces New Versions of MapleSim and Maple

Jim Cooper — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:51:36 Z

I don’t think anyone would argue that the last few years have been pretty eventful. Modern industry is facing critical challenges, as design tasks become increasingly complex. Fortunately, we are seeing the development of new technologies that are allowing us to rise to the challenge. Techniques like rapid plant modeling for control applications, robust formulation techniques for automatic model generation, and the application of symbolic computation technology are accelerating the modeling process while ensuring correctness and sound scientific principles. The world of engineering is changing, and I’ve been fortunate to watch some of these developments first-hand.

Driving Green Design

Jim Cooper — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:07:43 Z

A dramatic change in how we interact with the environment demands an equally dramatic change in how we develop technology. The evolution of predictive technology – in other words, software - has been a precursor to the development of environmentally progressive technologies like clean coal power stations and hybrid energy vehicles.

The ideal virtual prototyping tool

Jim Cooper — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:29:20 Z

Modern software tools should allow engineers to design, develop and test their designs before a single part is sent to the prototyping shop. So why is it not happening? Why are hundreds of prototypes manufactured, tested and then rejected? Why is so much time wasted at the testing and then redesigning stage?

Individually, the components for the ideal virtual prototyping tool are available, but they have not yet been wrapped up into a single integrated environment that’s based on design principles that engineers find intuitive.

Why is that?