On Feb 20, 2013 12:47 AM, "Rob Clewley" <rob.clewley@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all, and apologies for a little cross-posting:

First, thanks to those of you who have used and contributed to the PyDSTool math modeling environment [1]. This project has greatly benefitted from the underlying platform of numpy / scipy / matplotlib / ipython. Going forward I have three goals, for which I would like the urgent input and support of existing or potential users.

(i) I have ideas for expanding PyDSTool with innovative tools in my research area, which is essentially for the reverse engineering of complex mechanisms in multi-scale dynamic systems [2]. These tools have already been prototyped and show promise, but they need a lot of work. (ii) I want to grow and develop the community of users who will help drive new ideas, provide feedback, and collaborate on writing and testing code for both the core and application aspects of PyDSTool. (iii) The first two goals will help me to expand the scientific / engineering applications and use cases of PyDSTool as well as further sustain the project in the long-term.

I am applying for NSF funding to support these software and application goals over the next few years [3], but the proposal deadline is in just four weeks! If you are interested in helping in any way I would greatly appreciate your replies (off list) to either of the following queries:

I need to better understand my existing and potential users, many of whom may not be registered on the sourceforge users list. Please tell me who you are and what you use PyDSTool for. If you are not using it yet but you’re interested in this area then please provide feedback regarding what you would like to see change.

If you are interested in these future goals, even if you are not an existing user but may be in the future, please write a brief letter of support on a letterhead document that I will send in with the proposal as PDFs. I have sample text that I can send you, as well as my draft proposal’s introduction and specific aims. These letters can make a great deal of difference during review.

Without funding, collaborators, user demand and community support, these more ambitious goals for PyDSTool will not happen, although I am committed to a basic level of maintenance. For instance, based on user feedback I am about to release an Ubuntu-based Live CD [4] that will allow users to try PyDSTool on any OS without having to install it. PyDSTool will also acquire an improved setup procedure and will be added to the NeuroDebian repository [5], among others. I am also finalizing an integrated interface to CUDA GPUs to perform fast parallel ODE solving [6].

Thanks for your time, Rob Clewley

[1] http://pydstool.sourceforge.net [2] http://www.ni.gsu.edu/~rclewley/Research/index.html, and in particular

http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1002...

[3] NSF Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (SI2-SSE) program solicitation: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2013/nsf13525/nsf13525.htm [4] http://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD [5] http://neuro.debian.net/ [6] http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_home_new.html

I am looking at documentation now, but a couple things from what I seen: Are you particularly tied to sourceforge? It seems a lot of python development is moving to github, and it makes third party contribution much easier. You can still distribute releases through sourceforge even if you use github for revision control. Are you in touch with the neuroensemble mailing list? This seems relevant to it.