DSWeb invites students and faculty to enter its first competition for software on dynamical systems theory and its applications. This year the focus will be on software to analyze dynamical systems, while next year we will launch a software tutorials contest (to be announced in the October 2018 issue of the DSWeb magazine).

Both faculty and student entries are invited; winners will be selected in each of three categories: (1) undergraduate and graduate students, (2) postdocs and junior faculty or researchers, and (3) senior faculty or researchers. Winners will be announced in the July 2018 issue of the DSWeb magazine and at the DS-sponsored session at the SIAM Annual Meeting; prize money totaling $1500 will be awarded and shared among the lucky winners. All appropriate submissions will be published in the DSWeb Software section in June 2018.

Selection committee: Bard Ermentrout, Flavio Fenton, Peter van Heijster, James Meiss, Lennaert van Veen.

Entries are due no later than June 1, 2018.  EXTENDED DEADLINE: JUNE 30, 2018.

Guidelines:

The goal of the contest is to promote the development of novel and creative software-based methods to analyze dynamical systems. Existing software in our large collection currently includes algorithms to examine ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, bifurcation behavior, maps, time series, and much more. Other types of dynamical systems (e.g., stochastic differential equations or time series analysis) may be less well represented; however, we welcome contributions of any kind that help to examine the behavior of dynamical systems.

Winning entries will be selected based on factors including ease of use, effectiveness in solving a problem, genericity of the type of problem the software can tackle, and clarity of documentation. Ideally, the software utilizes programming languages/systems that are widely in use.

Submission Instructions:

1.   Write and save as a PDF a short note including the following items:

• Your name, university and department or other affiliation information, and position of the lead developer (undergrad/grad student, postdocs/junior faculty or researcher, senior faculty or researcher).
• The content of your material and its recommended use (i.e., what type of software).
• Key features/highlights and a short description of the software for the judges.          
• Detailed instructions or a manual on how to use your software. This should also include instructions for how to install your software and how to run demo codes.

2.   You likely have multiple files; please put them in a folder that is compressed to a single tar/zip archive file. Please make sure your text formats are readily readable (i.e., plain text, html, .txt, .pdf).

3.   Email your .pdf submission note and software submission to [email protected], and write “2018 Software Contest” in the subject line. Submissions should not exceed 5MB. If this is impossible, please setup and submit a download link (e.g., a Dropbox link); if all options fail, please contact the DSWeb Software Section Chief Editor.

Entries are due no later than June 1, 2018. EXTENDED DEADLINE: JUNE 30, 2018.

More information, including existing software on dynamical systems, can be found on DSWeb. Further questions should be directed to DSWeb Software Section Chief Editor Erik A. Martens.