The first day of Maple Conference 2022 is coming up on November 2 and it's not too late to register! Please go to our conference home page and click on the "Register Now" button. This is a free virtual event open to all.

The schedule is available on the conference agenda page.

Come join us to see recent developments in research, education and applications, find out about new and upcoming features in our products, talk to Maplesoft staff and other members of the Maple community and view (and vote on) Maple and Maple Learn artwork.

We hope to see you at the conference!

Who else likes art?  I love art; doodling in my notebook between projects and classes is a great way to pass the time and keep my creativity sharp.  However, when I’m working in Maple Learn, I don’t need to get out my book; I can use the plot window as my canvas and get my drawing fix right then and there.

We’ve done a few blog posts on Maple Learn art, and we’re back at it again in even bigger and better ways.  Maple Learn’s recent update added some useful features that can be incorporated into art, including the ability to resize the plot window and animate using automatically-changing variables.

Even with all the previous posts, you may be thinking, “What’s all this?  How am I supposed to make art in a piece of math software?”  Well, there is a lot of beauty to mathematics.  Consider beautiful patterns and fractals, equations that produce surprisingly aesthetically interesting outputs, and the general use of mathematics to create technical art.  In Maple Learn, you don’t have to get that advanced (heck, unless you want to).  Art can be created by combining basic shapes and functions into any image you can imagine.  All of the images below were created in Maple Learn!

There are many ways you can harness artistic power in Maple Learn.  Here are the resources I recommend to get you started.

1. I’ve recently made some YouTube videos (see the first one below) that provide a tutorial for Maple Learn art.  This series is less than 30 minutes in total, and covers - in three respective parts - the basics, some more advanced Learn techniques, and a full walkthrough of how I make my own art.
2. Check out the Maple Learn document gallery art collection for some inspiration, the how-to documents for additional help, and the rest of the gallery to see even more Maple Learn in action!

Once you’re having fun and making art, consider submitting your art to the Maple Conference 2022 Maple Learn Art Showcase.  The due date for submission is October 14, 2022.  The Conference itself is on November 2-3, and is a free virtual event filled with presentations, discussions, and more.  Check it out!

This is a friendly reminder that the deadline for submissions for this year's Maple Conference Creative Works Exhibit is fast approaching!

If you are looking for inspiration, you can take a look at the writeup of the works that were featured last year in this write up in the most recent issue of Maple Transations.

Also, don't forget that you can also submit art made in Maple Learn for a special exhibit alongside the main gallery.

As we head back to school, I want to take a moment to thank all the math teachers out there who take on the demanding yet overlooked task of educating our children, teenagers, and young people. 

I'm where I am today because my calculus teacher, Prof. Srinivasan, was unwavering in her belief that my classmates and I could master any math topic, including calculus. Her conviction in me gave me the confidence to believe I could 'do' math. While Prof. Srinivasan made teaching look easy, I'm acutely aware that teaching math is no easy feat. Speaking with math educators regularly, I can appreciate how challenging teaching math is today compared to a decade ago. Not only do they have to teach the subject, but they must be able to teach it in-person and online, to a group of students that may not be up to speed on the prerequisite material, and in an era where disruptive technologies vie for their student's attention. No wonder math educators are so anxious about returning to the classroom this fall!

And while I wish I could abracadabra your worries away, what I can do is offer you the opportunity to use Maple Learn, a tool built to support the utopian vision of a world where all students love math. A world where math is for everyone, not just the gifted, and the purpose of math class is to explore and marvel at the wonders of the universe, not just get to the correct answer.

Slightly more concretely, Maple Learn is a flexible interactive environment for exploring concepts, solving problems, and creating rich online math content. I've seen educators use Maple Learn to help their students: 

• Grasp a definition or particularly tricky proof (for example, Formal Definition of the  Partial Derivative)
• Explore a concept and question their initial assumptions and beliefs (such as Is it an Odd or Even Function)
• Master a particular solving technique through drill and practice worksheets (Calculating Volumes)
• Work collaboratively on a math project (Designing a Roller Coaster)

I’ve talked to lots of instructors, in math, and in courses like economics and physics that use math, who have lots of ideas of how to engage their students and deepen their understanding through interactive online activities. What they don’t have are the tools, programming experience, deployment platform, or time to implement their vision. Fortunately, Maple Learn makes it incredibly easy to develop and share your own content, and all you need are your ideas and a web browser. But you don’t need to start from scratch. You can choose from an extensive, constantly growing repository of ready-made, easily customizable content covering a wide range of topics. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is, but since we are well aware that instructors are extremely busy people, we also have content development services that can help you transform your static content into interactive lessons.

If you haven't looked at Maple Learn, or it's been a while since you last saw it, you can visit Reinventing Math Education with Maple Learn for more information, including an upcoming webinar you might be interested in attending and a special offer on Maple Learn for Maple campuses. And if you ever want to discuss ways Maple Learn might help you, or have ideas on how to make it better, please reach out. I'm always up for good conversation. 

And for all the dedicated teachers who are taking a deep breath and heading back into the classroom this fall, thank you.

We are happy to announce that we released MapleSim 2022 today.

The MapleSim 2022 family of products offers improvements in modeling and connectivity, including many that are in direct response to customer requests. Improvements include:

• Reduce diagram clutter by using “wireless” To-From blocks for a larger variety of signals
• Easily create, customize, and fine-tune control valves with new components and tools in the hydraulics library
• Expand modeling scope with improvements to several specialized libraries and toolboxes, including the MapleSim add-on products for Battery, Heat Transfer, and Web Handling
• New productivity and connectivity features in MapleSim Insight,  a standalone product in the MapleSim family that gives machine builders powerful simulation-based debugging and 3-D visualization capabilities that connect directly to your automation tools

See What’s New in MapleSim 2022 for more information about these and other improvements.

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. After months and months of hard work by a lot of people, it’s finally arrived:

It's Maple launch day!

Yes, I am very pleased to announce that Maple 2022 is here.

As we’ve done in years past, Samir and I started this release by spending many hours reviewing feedback from Maple Primes posts, support emails, sessions with staff who regularly talk with customers and who use Maple themselves, and our own direct conversations with customers. Of course a year is never enough to implement every good idea, but our goal was to identity a feature set that would appeal to, delight, and hopefully excite our customers.

Ultimately, you will be the judge, but I can tell that there are some things in Maple 2022 that I am personally very excited about. These are “quality of life” improvements that have been requested by customs and make some things in Maple that were frankly kind of annoying a lot better. The rest of this post will discuss my favorite improvements in more detail (or you can watch this video), and of course, you can get much more information about these and all the other improvements in What’s New in Maple 2022.

#1 – Did you ever find yourself jumping back and forth between your Maple document and Print Preview, again and again, as you prepare your worksheet for printing or export to PDF? It can be a pain, especially with long documents that include plots, tables, and sections. So I'm happy to announce that Maple 2022 includes a new Print Layout mode. This new layout mode lets you see the page boundaries as you edit the document, so you can adjust your content as you go. In Maple 2022, what you see on the page is what you get when you print or export to PDF. Hurray!

#2 – Are you tired of explaining to your students why the graph of tan(x) doesn’t look right in Maple?  Good news!  With Maple 2022, you won’t have to have that conversation ever again. Maple 2022's new adaptive plotting algorithm means that when you plot tan(x), 1/(1-x), floor and ceiling functions, and most other curves with discontinuities, you’ll get what you expect by default – no more vertical lines, no need to specify the discont option, and it’s still fast.

#3 – Did you ever run into a situation where zooming, panning, or resizing your plot didn’t actually give you the better view of the plot you were looking for? Now Maple recomputes and redraws when needed to give you what you wanted – a good look at your plot.

#4 – Are you a fan of the Plot Builder? If you are, I'm delighted to let you know that the Plot Builder in Maple 2022 now supports plotting multiple expressions together on the same axes. So don't hold back - use the Plot Builder to customize plots and animations of any number of 2-D and 3-D expressions plots and animations. (We also got rid of that annoying empty plot when you first open it, too.)

#5 - And, by popular demand, Maple 2022 now magnifies the text in the table of contents/search results when you magnify a help page. No more squinting to find the topic of interest. My eyes are much happier.

Those are my favorites, but there is a lot more in the release. To learn more about all the improvements in Maple 2022, visit What’s New in Maple 2022

We have just issued a critical fix to Maple, MapleSim, and Maple Flow running on macOS.

We have heard from some users who were experiencing serious problems with doubled characters while using Maplesoft products on macOS, including these reports on MaplePrimes. Further investigation determined that these problems appear specifically on macOS 11 and macOS 12.  I am happy to report that we have now corrected the problem, and a patch is available. 

Anyone who uses macOS 11 or macOS 12 should install this update immediately. We also strongly recommend that all macOS users install this update, to avoid problems that may be triggered by future updates to your operating system.

To obtain this update:

• If you have Maple only, follow the instructions on the Maple 2021.2.1 update page.
• If you have MapleSim, visit the MapleSim 2021.2.1 update page.
• If you have Maple Flow, follow the instructions for Maple Flow 2021.2.1.

For those who have experienced problems, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience while we worked to find a solution.

As most Maple Primes readers have hopefully seen, Maplesoft is having our Maple Conference again this fall. This year we decided to add a space to the conference to showcase creative and artistic work that would be interesting to our Maple Community. The conference organizers asked me if I would coordinate and curate this exhibition of creative uses of Math and Maple, and I agreed. So now, I am asking the Maple community to send us your most creative work related to or using Maple.

The obvious thing to submit would be a beautiful digital plot or animation with an interesting mathematical story and of course, we are really interested to see those. But, we would are especially excited to see some art created with physcial media. I would love to see your knitting or needle point project that is inspired by a mathematical theme or was created with the help of Maple.

The full announcement can be found at the Maple Conference Art Gallery page. We would like to have all submissions by October 12th so that can review and finalize the gallery before the conference begins November 1st.

Oh yeah, there will also be prizes.

I can't wait to see what everyone sends in!

We have just released an update to Maple, Maple 2021.1.

Maple 2021.1 includes improvements to plotting, export to PDF and LaTeX, the user interface, the mathematics engine, and more. We strongly recommend that all Maple 2021 users install these updates.

This update is available through Tools>Check for Updates in Maple, and is also available from our website on the Maple 2021.1 download page, where you can also find more details.

In particular, please note that this update includes fixes to the sometimes missing plotting toolbar, the misplaced plot annotations on export, and a workbook saving problem, all reported on MaplePrimes.

Thanks for the feedback!

We’re excited to announce the release of MapleSim 2021! The MapleSim 2021 family of products lets you build and explore models more easily than ever, with improved simulation performance and 3-D visualizations, new ways to share models with those who don’t use MapleSim, and a host of new and expanded component libraries. Improvements include:

• Improved performance for large models that allows you to take advantage of the fastest simulations yet – no matter how complex your design is.
• More realistic 3-D visualizations with the ability to define dynamic shape sizes, such as spheres and cylinders that expand or contract over the course of the simulation, so components are realistically represented throughout.
• Expanded modeling scope for machine builders, with a new pneumatics component library and expanded hydraulics support, as well as improved visualizations in the MapleSim Ropes and Pulleys Library add-on.
• New simulation and analysis features in MapleSim Insight, a standalone product in the MapleSim family that provides anyone in your organization with access to powerful simulation-based debugging and 3-D visualization capabilities that connect directly to common automation platforms.

See What’s New in MapleSim 2021 for more information about these and other improvements!
 

Some of you know me from my occasional posts on Maple’s typesetting and plotting features, but today, I am here in my new role as co-chair (along with Rob Corless of Western University) of the 2021 Maple Conference. I am pleased to announce that we have just opened the Call for Presentations.

This year’s conference will be held Nov. 2 – Nov. 5, 2021. It will be a free virtual event again this year, making it an excellent opportunity to share your Maple-related work with others without the expenses and inconveniences of travel.

Maple Conference 2021 invites submissions of proposals for presentations on a range of topics related to Maple, including Maple in education, algorithms and software, and applications. All presenters will be given the option of submitting a full paper, which will undergo peer review, and if accepted, be included in the conference proceedings.

Presentation proposals are due June 1, 2021.

You can find more information about the themes of the conference, how to submit a presentation proposal, and the program committee on Maplesoft Conference Call for Presentations.

Registration for attending the conference will open in June. Another announcement will be made at that time.

I sincerely hope that all of you here in the Maple Primes community will consider joining us for this event, whether as a presenter or attendee.

Maple Learn is out of beta! I am pleased to announce that Maple Learn, our new online environment for teaching and learning math and solving math problems, is out of beta and is now an officially released product. Over 5000 teachers and students used Maple Learn during its public beta period, which was very helpful. Thank you to everyone who took the time to try it out and provide feedback.

We are very excited about Maple Learn, and what it can mean for math education. Educators told us that, while Maple is a great tool for doing, teaching, and learning all sorts of math, some of their students found its very power and breadth overwhelming, especially in the early years of their studies. As a result, we created Maple Learn to be a version of Maple that is specifically focused on the needs of educators and students who are teaching and learning math in high school, two year and community college, and the first two years of university.  

I talked a bit about what this means in a previous post, but probably the best way to get an overview of what this means is to watch our new two minute video:  Introducing Maple Learn.

Visit Maple Learn for more information and to try it out for yourself.  A basic Maple Learn account is free, and always will be.   If you are an instructor, please note that you may be eligible for a free Maple Learn Premium account. You can apply from the web site. 

There’s lots more we want to do with Maple Learn in the future, of course. Even though the beta period is over, please feel free to continue sending us your feedback and suggestions. We’ve love to hear from you!

The 2020 Maple Conference is coming up fast! It is running from November 2-6 this year, all remotely, and completely free.

The week will be packed with activities, and we have designed it so that it will be valuable for Maple users of all skill and experience levels. The agenda includes 3 keynote presentations, 2 live panel presentations, 8 Maplesoft recorded presentations, 3 Maple workshops, and 68 contributed recorded presentations.

There will be live Q&A’s for every presentation. Additionally, we are hosting what we’re calling “Virtual Tables” at every breakfast (8-9am EST) and almost every lunch (12-1 EST). These tables offer attendees a chance to discuss topics related to the conference streams of the day, as well as a variety of special topics and social discussions. You can review the schedule for these virtual tables here.

Attendance is completely free, and we’re confident that there will be something there for all Maple users. Whether you attend one session or all of them, we’d love to see you there!

You can register for the Maple Conference here.

I am very pleased to announce that we have just begun a free public beta for a new online product, Maple Learn!  Maple Learn is a dynamic online environment designed specifically for teaching and learning math and solving math problems, from mid-high school to second year university.

Maple Learn is much more than just a sophisticated online graphing calculator. We tried to create an environment that focuses on the things instructors and students in those courses have told us that they want/need in a math tool. Here are some of my personal favorites:

• You can get the answer directly if you want it, but you can also work out problems line-by-line as you would on paper, or use a combination of manual steps and computations performed by Maple Learn.  
• The plot of your expression shows up as soon as you start typing, so plotting is super easy
• You can parameterize expressions with a single mouse click, and then watch the plots and results change as you modify the values using sliders
• It’s really easy to share your work, so when a student asks for help, the helper can always see exactly what they’ve done so far (and it will be legible, unlike a lot of the tutoring I’ve done!)

Free public beta: Maple Learn is freely available to instructors and students as part of an on-going public beta program. Please try it out, and feel free to use with your classes this fall.

Visit Maple Learn for more information, and to try it out. We hope you find it useful, and we’d love to know what you think.

We’re excited to announce a new version of MapleSim! The MapleSim 2020 family of products lets you build and test models faster than ever, including faster simulations, powerful new tools for machine builders, and expanded modeling capabilities. Improvements include:

• Faster results, with more efficient models, faster simulations, and more powerful design tools.
• Powerful new features for machine builders, with new components, improved visualizations, and automation-focused connectivity tools that make it faster than ever to build and test digital twins.
• Improved modeling capabilities, with an extensive collection of updates to components, libraries, and analysis tools.
• More realistic machine visualizations with an expanded Kinematic Cam Generation App.
• New product: MapleSim Insight, giving machine builders powerful, simulation-based debugging and 3-D visualization capabilities that connect directly to common automation platforms.
• New add-on library:  MapleSim Ropes and Pulleys Library for the easy creation of winch and pulley systems as part of your machine development. 

See What’s New in MapleSim 2020 for more information about these and other improvements!