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Alan Elbanhawy

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16 years, 299 days
Contact Alan Elbanhawy

Expert Power System Architect at Exar Corporation. I hold a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and have over 40 years of engineering experience in power supply design and R&D management. I hold eighteen patents and have applications for four more. I've authored over 60 papers on power delivery that have been translated to five languages in international conferences and technical publications.

MaplePrimes Activity


These are replies submitted by Alan Elbanhawy

Another inspiring post...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
July 28 2015

Hello Mac Dude,

I think your post is very inspiring too. The beauty of modern technology and software packages is that the knowledge gained are cumulative that is you can always add to it while maintaining what you have. I started using Maple in the late 80’s under DOS operating system and what Maple had back then was so little as compared to what it has now but for the time, it was still very impressive. What I am trying to say is that I know that my own sons in a few years will have a much richer Maple than the one I use today and my grandchildren will have even richer product. As for the immediate future, I am sure that the extremely talented team at Maplesoft are doing a great job with the resources they have available to them.

One last point, my first view of Maple in the late 80’s was when a scientist at SPAR Aerospace in Canada demonstrated to me how to solve ODE in Maple

Thanks...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
July 28 2015

Thanks, Edgardo. It is always great to hear from experienced physicists and engineers who have experienced Maple's advantage first hand and I agree, it is a game changer!

Thank you for the kind words...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
July 27 2015

Hello Sir,

      Thank you very much for taking the time to write to me. Let me tell you, receiving such positive and encouraging emails from considerate people like yourself, make my day every time.

Alan Elbanhawy

As I said before...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
July 27 2015

As I indicated in my previous response, I do not have the sheet anymore

Here is my reply Markiyan...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
July 27 2015

 

The paper was published 10 years ago. I do not have the Maple worksheet anymore. All the pertinent results are found in the paper that you placed on Mapleprimes from my reseasrchGate web page

I would like to offer an opinion on a re...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
October 16 2009
I would like to offer an opinion on a related aspect of the “Avalanche of Data”. The concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for some time now that resulted in AI systems of varying degrees of success depending on what is your definition of AI? My personal definition in very simple words would be “Making sense of the data available in a certain situation and use it by the AI knowledge base to affect a useful function”. I would also like to add that this definition applies only to engineering AI systems. The engineering environment is relatively a very simple one regardless of the perceived complexity of the problem or challenge under consideration. For example, A robust AI system for stock market prediction is orders of magnitude more challenging than a robust engineering one while an AI system for understanding and appreciation of the arts is clearly beyond the realm of possibilities, for now anyway,  given our current state of technology. Back to engineering AI systems, the reason for its relative simplicity is that in every single case, there exist a set of mathematical equations to fully describe whatever system or problem is under consideration. AI‘s role would be to sift through the piles of data in the form of requirements, component specs, manufacturing limitations etc. to figure out the design details and the implications of every single design decision to be made.  Then ideally go through one cycle of prototyping – testing and interpreting the significance of the test data – delta redesign before the final design is complete. One must expect that the data to be examined may cover the full range of electrical, mechanical, thermal and physical specs of the system itself and every single component that goes into its design and manufacturing necessitating AI knowledge of all the associated disciplines which significantly complicates the task. One prominent requirement that is common to all engineering AI systems is the need for a very powerful and flexible math solving and manipulation engine that can be deployed by the native discipline of the problem as well as the associated ones with the same proficiency. This makes Maple an ideal candidate for such complex endeavors.

Looking from the outside, the only thing...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
September 28 2009
Looking from the outside, the only thing that is more promising than Maplesoft’s technology is the great success in store for them in the next few years. The consistent breakthroughs in technology coupled with products that are intuitive, easy to use with a treasure trove of powerful features makes Maple products the logical fit for solving thousands of applications in hundreds of disciplines. In my opinion, the real challenge for Maplesoft lies in deciding which new fields to target with new products and how fitting the final product will be for the chosen field. Why don’t I use Maple to demonstrate what I mean? The attached graph shows – in relative terms – the potential for success as a function of Time in years and the amount of continuing technical advances of the core technology AND the degree of complexity of the systems they can successfully address by rendering the desired solution for them.

One must add to this assessment the advances in computer power which doubles roughly every 18 months. Combining the technology advances in Maple with those of computers over say the next 10-15 years will result in mind numbing capabilities beyond comprehension to successfully tackle any engineering or physics challenge under the sun.
Other than philosophy, almost every other discipline under the sun can - to a varying degree - benefit from some advanced mathematics to ease the burden of our modern civilization’s demands for better, cheaper and more powerful offerings not to mention human’s insatiable appetite for knowledge and deeper understanding of the physical world around us; an endeavor that can never be achieved without the advanced tools that will help scientists wade through the sometimes murky world of higher mathematics dealing with never before seen challenges.                                                 
One last observation, if I am still around when Maple 25 is released, I will own the worlds of engineering and physics! ............... So can you. Get ready for the ride of your career, be prepared, and get Maple 13 now

Over the years I had the distinct pleasu...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
September 22 2009
Over the years I had the distinct pleasure of discussing countless engineering challenges with some of the most talented engineers and physicists that I met all around the world. Sometimes I found myself having a different opinion on a certain subject that usually led to heated, and very exciting I might add, discussions where reaching a conclusion right there and then was almost impossible. But since I have had Maple on my notebook computer; resolution of some of these discussions was settled before it became heated. How you might ask? Simple, it is the pervasive logic of the mathematics that governs the topic of discussion. If you can formulate the issue in a set of equations that can be solved then you have your answer, unbiased and to the point.
I can recall several occasions over the years where someone in my audience would disagree with me on a point and in a situation where open discussion was neither possible because of time limitations nor very prudent because the person who disagreed with me is the customer. Maple was always the clever and definitive way out. I switched from my PowerPoint presentation to Maple, wrote a couple of equations, got the solution and voila the issue is settled. You don’t have to argue the point anymore, make the formidable and undisputable power of mathematics your ally. I liken a mathematical proof to DNA positive test both are universally accepted as the truth and are never disputed except only by those who really need serious professional help.
Keep in mind that mathematical proof is the absolute truth while DNA tests may be inconclusive once in say 500 billion to 500 trillion:). Be prepared though, sometimes you may not like the results you get if it disagree with your point of view. Even for experts, it is not always important to commit everything in your field to memory but rather to know how to get the right answers fast and reliably, use Maple. Oh, one last thing, I trust that you are using the right equations and parameters.  

Studying engineering is all about explor...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
September 15 2009

Studying engineering is all about explorations into the practical side of the physics underlying everything that we see and touch in everyday life as well as that of the esoteric like space exploration or nuclear energy. One, sometimes, formidable challenge is becoming fully familiar and comfortable with the mathematics involved in a given discipline for a given subject. This familiarity comes from endless examination of some of the challenges facing the engineer tackling a problem. These examinations invariably involve mathematics to have order out of the conflicting requirements posed by such a problem. Speaking from experience, the battle is 80% won if the equations that describe the problem are first understood and secondly and more importantly are solved rendering physically realizable variables. What is left after this is the optimization of these variables to fully meet or even exceed the requirements. Once a specific design has been done and tested, documentation of the thought process used in the form of the math, text, graphs and simulation leading to the solution is needed. This documentation is essential because it give credence to the solution and is a permanent record for the engineer to draw upon in the future making tackling the next similar design problem that much easier. Maple® offers all of the features needed to do all of the above from formulating the equations, solving them, performing optimizations, helping with the visualization of the extents of the problem and finally documentation in one package…..PERFECTION

Years ago, I graduated from Cairo Univer...

Alan Elbanhawy 65
June 25 2009

Years ago, I graduated from Cairo University with a degree in Electrical engineering. The graduating class was about 55% girls. They were some of the smartest young women I have ever met. My first job was with the Egyptian Broadcasting Corporation and I would estimate that the percentage of women engineers there was no less than 85%. Some of them went on to run most of the major departments there. In recent years I travelled frequently to China, Japan and Taiwan where I met a large number, percentage wise, of accomplished women engineers, researchers and R&D managers. In international power conferences that I attended over the last ten years, I noticed that the percentage of women engineering researchers is growing steadily but they are still underrepresented when compared to men. Nonetheless, women have taken great strides in representation in technical conferences when compared to say 20 years ago.  Collectively, all these women from the four corners of the world have proven once and for all that there is nothing in the technical world that can hold them back from achieving success in the field of their choice.

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