Table of Contents
(Click on the contents entry to read it)

Seminars

In mid-October HRS will be running public seminars in Auckland and Wellington on 6 different topic areas. We will also be hosting a seminar by David Wilson of AUT in Auckland, on the use of MATLAB in designing control systems. In addition to these public seminars, we will be visiting many universities to talk about the use of MATLAB in academic institutions. We will also be running 40-minute webinars to introduce STATISTICA and Mathcad.

Details of the public seminars and webinars, and registration forms, can be found at www.hrs.co.nz/seminars. If you want to help us to present a seminar on MATLAB or Mathematica in your university please contact Leon (leon@hrs.co.nz).

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Graphing with Grapher, Surfer and Voxler

Auckland 12 October & Wellington 16 October: 10.00am-11.30am

These 3 products come from Golden Software, and are now the easiest, most powerful and economical way to graph data in 2 or more dimensions. Their emphasis in on geological presentations, but they are equally useful in business and in other scientific or engineering disciplines.

For more information and to enroll click here.

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Data analysis with MATLAB

Auckland 12 October & Wellington 16 October: 1.00pm-2.30pm

This seminar will introduce MATLAB as a tool for general analysis of data, in several application areas. It will include a demonstration of some of the new features in R2006b.

For more information and to enroll click here.

Design documentation with Mathcad

Auckland 12 October & Wellington 16 October: 3.00pm-4.30pm

Mathcad is the ideal place to do your engineering calculations in a way that ensures your work is re-useable and auditable. The product is now owned by PTC, makers of Pro-Engineer, and we will discuss the role of Mathcad in the new company, as well as introducing it to new users.

For more information and to enroll click here.

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STATISTICA - Simple summaries to data mining.

Auckland 13 October & Wellington 17 October: 9.00am-10.30am

We will demonstrate the unique power of STATISTICA  - from simple summaries and bar graphs, through industrial statistics to data mining.

For more information and to enroll click here.

Simplyfiying the survey process

Auckland 13 October & Wellington 17 October: 11.00am-12.30pm

Simplify the survey process. If you are conducting opinion or HR surveys you should consider using SurveyPro, a program designed for the job. Add NetCollect to create full-featured web-based surveys, or Remark to scan information from paper forms.

For more information and to enroll click here.

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Quantitative Risk Analysis

Auckland 13 October & Wellington 17 October: 1.30pm-3.00pm

Use Monte-Carlo simulation to tell you just how likely it is that various business or environmental scenarios will occur.

For more information and to enroll click here.

Guest Presentation by Associate Professor David Wilson

Associate Professor David Wilson from AUT will present a seminar called "Rapid prototyping made easy - objects in MATLAB" in Auckland on 31 October.

The presentation will show how quick and easy it is to problem solve using MATLAB and Simulink, particularly when designing or modelling systems.

For more information and to register, visit: www.hrs.co.nz/matlabobjectsseminar.

Academic Tours

Mathematica Tour: Using Mathematica in teaching and research

We have run this seminar at Otago, Massey and Waikato universities. If you are keen for us to come to your institution please contact Glen.

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MATLAB Academic Tour in November

We intend to visit universities in November to present MATLAB and the wide range of applications it has, which many academics and students may not be aware of. If your department is interested in organising a visit, please contact Leon.

Webinars - STATISTICA and Mathcad

Wednesday 25 October, but we can be quite flexible on times and days.

Webinars will be used to demonstrate STATISTICA and Mathcad over the Internet. Anyone with a broadband connection can register, and on the day they will phone in to HRS and at the same time be able to see the product demonstrated on their computer screen. This works particularly well when a group of people gather in a conference room with a data projector, and is recommended for those who can’t make a seminar.

For more information and to enroll click here.

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Training

Courses using @RISK, MATLAB, STATISTICA and Mathcad (November)

We have four different public training courses running at AUT, Auckland during November. (Please note: At HRS, seminars are free, but you must pay for training.)

• Value, Risk & Quantitative Decision Making using @RISK – Kathy Boardman 1-2 November.
• Introduction to MATLAB – Dr David Wilson, 21-22 November
• Using STATISTICA for Data Analysis – Dr Ray Hoare, 23 November
• Mathematical Calculations Made Easy – Helen Clarkson, 24 November

See www.hrs.co.nz/training for details and to register.

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New Products

New 3D Data Visualisation Product - Voxler!

Explore the world of three-dimensional visualisation with Voxler! Voxler takes your raw, complex data and models it in a rich, interactive, visual environment. With an easy-to-use user interface, you will quickly visualise, evaluate, investigate, and examine your data, using transparency to see within your 3D model.

Click here to view the Voxler web page or contact Glen for more info.

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The Maple Toolbox for MATLAB

With this toolbox, Maplesoft offers a technical computing solution that is tightly integrated with MATLAB, providing direct access to all the commands, variables, and functions of each product while working in either environment. Key features include:

• Interactive technical document interface, with intuitive 2D equation editor for typeset-quality mathematical presentations
• Up to 50 times faster than the Extended Symbolic Math Toolbox
• Access to full Maple features, including Statistics, Units, Optimization and Tolerances.

Contact Glen for more information.

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BlockBuilder for Simulink – from MapleSoft

BlockBuilder from Maplesoft introduces a “First Principles” physical modeling environment for Simulink. Engineers can mathematically develop models of dynamic systems, particularly for plant characterisation in control applications, and then implement them in Simulink as a subsystem block. Most engineers find this a faster and less error-prone way to develop their models.

Click here for more information about this product or contact Glen.

Wolfram Workbench

Wolfram Research have released their Wolfram Workbench, a state-of-the-art integrated development environment (IDE) that incorporates Mathematica technologies. The Workbench complement's Mathematica's powerful, high-level programming language and world-renowned features for computation, visualisation, and modelling, and is ideal for development of large-scale technical solutions.

Click here to read more about the Mathematica Workbench or contact Glen.

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Two New Data Acquisition Boards from Humusoft

Humusoft have recently released two new data acquisition boards that are especially suitable for use with the MATLAB Real Time Toolbox. Both the entry level AD622 and the fully-featured MF624 are great value.

Click here for more info on these boards or contact Bruce.

Biomedical engineering software based on MATLAB

A company called g.tec makes a wide range of hardware and software for biomedical engineering. Their signal analysis software is based on MATLAB and Simulink, so may fit in very well with the work that some of you are already doing. Email ray@hrs.co.nz if you would like to know more about these products, particularly if you are interested in data analysis and documentation for EEG, EOG, EMG and ECG.

Updates & Upgrades

Upgrade to Mathcad 13 Special Offer!

Upgrade to version 13 from Mathcad 2000, 2001i, 11 or 12 before 29 September and you will receive the Mathcad "Add-on Collection" and "Data Analysis Extension Pack" as no-charge bonuses. Contact Bruce for more info.

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Release 2006b of TMW products (including MATLAB version 7.3) is now available.

R2006b includes updates to MATLAB and Simulink, six new products released since R2006a, and updates and bug fixes to 80 other products. Changes which we think will be generally appreciated include:

• Improvements to the program development environment
• Interactive page layout and print preview of graphs, allowing customization of plots and page position before printing

Specialist areas of MATLAB that have been worked on include the handling of large data sets, data I/O formats, and some matrix functions.

Among the toolboxes, notable changes include a new graphical user interface that will simplify the specification of optimisation problems, continuing improvements to the handling of microarray data in the Bioinformatics toolbox, an application builder for the Java environment, and improvements to the distributed computing tools.

See here (http://www.mathworks.com/products/new_products/latest_features.html?s_cid=HP_RH_2006b) for a detailed description of changes. Customers on maintenance will be sent a new set of CD's, and they can download updates as well.

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PLECs – New Version 1.4

PLECS is a unique tool for the fast simulation of electrical circuits within the Simulink and MATLAB environment. Although specially designed for power electronics systems it is a versatile program for any combined simulation of electrical circuits and controls. Version 1.4 adds new models, control blocks and signals.  Click here or contact Bruce for more info.

SimBiology® 2.0 - Major Update!

Model, design, and simulate biochemical pathways.

SimBiology extends MATLAB with tools for modeling, simulating, and analysing biochemical pathways. You can create your own block diagram model using predefined blocks. You can manually enter in species, parameters, reactions, rules, kinetic laws, and units, or read in Systems Biology Mark-Up Language (SBML) models. SimBiology lets you simulate a model using stochastic or deterministic solvers and analyse your pathway with tools such as parameter estimation and sensitivity analysis.

Click here to find out more about this product. 

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MapViewer 7 from Golden Software

MapViewer is a thematic mapping program that delivers a very large number of features at a sensible price. Use it to display your survey or experimental data on a map in a way that you and your readers can relate to. For examples, visit our web page by clicking here.

If you would like to discuss this product, please contact Glen.

Forecast Pro Version 5

The newly re-designed Forecast Pro XE Version 5 will make your forecasting easier and more accurate. Here are a few improvements that you will benefit from in version 5:

• Brand new, intuitive interface 
• Improved expert selection
• New graphing and reporting capabilities
• Streamlined regression modelling facility
• Seasonal Simplification – this reduces the number of indices used to model seasonal patterns, and can substantially improve forecast accuracy for weekly forecasting.

Visit the product web page for more information on this product by clicking here. Contact Glen for more info.

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General

HRS Statistics prizes

Hoare Research Software has sponsored prizes for the best student presentations at NZ Statistical Association conferences for at least the last 10 years. This year the committee split the $1000 cash prize into a first prize of $500 and two equal $250 prizes.

Steven Miller, from University of Auckland, won the first prize for his paper "Not All Who Wander Are Lost: Using Genetic Distance Measures to Detect the Migration Patterns of Wild Rats Within Island Chains in New Zealand".

Two students from University of Otago – Matthew Schofield, with "A Unified Capture-Recapture Model" and Janine Wright, with "Incorporating Genotype Uncertainty into Mark-recapture-type Models for Estimating Abundance using DNA Samples" won the other prizes.

We are very pleased to give these and the previous winners this tangible acknowledgement of their achievements, and we encourage students and their supervisors to start preparing papers for next year's conference.

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NASA Chooses Sequencing Software from CLC bio

The Exobiology Branch of the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, has chosen bioinformatics software from CLC bio for analysing sequencing data which revolves around hypersaline microbial mat systems that are found worldwide in exotic locations such as Baja, Mexico, and Solar Lake, Egypt, to name a few. Click here to read more information.

If you would like to know more about products from CLC bio click here or contact Bruce.

MATLAB users in NZ

David Wilson from AUT is an expert in using MATLAB for control systems, and he is our main source of training expertise.

We thought it was of interest to record the organisations within which he has recently conducted intensive in-house training courses – they include Ministry of Fisheries, Transpower, and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Most of the attendees were not the engineering types you expect to use MATLAB, but they were technical people of many kinds who were using MATLAB for modelling a wide variety of systems. Contact Leon if you think your own organisation could benefit from a few days of training in MATLAB by an expert who is used to listening to the needs of many kinds of technical specialist.

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ICARA 2006

This robotics conference is intended to provide a common forum for researchers, scientists, engineers and practitioners throughout the world to present their latest research findings, ideas, developments and applications in the area of autonomous robotics and agents. ICARA 2006 will include keynote addresses by eminent scientists as well as special, regular and poster sessions.

Visit http://icara.massey.ac.nz/ for more information or email Christine Allport. (C.Allport@massey.ac.nz)

HRS Sponsorship - Upcoming Conferences

HRS is supporting the following conferences:

• ITPNZ Conference on 28-29 September
• NZWWA Conference on 11-13 October
• IVCNZ Conference on 27-29 November
• Medical Sciences Congress on 28 November to 1 December
• ORSNZ Conference on 30 November to 1 December
• AAEE Conference on 10-13 December
• ICARA Conference on 11-14 December

If you have or a colleague is involved with organising a conference and would like HRS to consider sponsoring your event because it has delegates that use our products, please contact Leon.

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Working with HRS

New Staff Member

We are pleased to introduce Fiona Rawlinson who be assisting our team with admin, sales and marketing.

User Stories

If you have any newsworthy user stories related to our products that you think our customers would be interested in reading, please contact Leon.

Advertising your events on the HRS Website

If we sponsor your event, or your delegates are likely to be using one of our products, contact Leon to place details of your conference on our website.

HRS Software Guide

If you want or any of your colleagues would like a copy of our 64 page Software Guide sent to you, please contact Leon or call 0800 477 776.

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Best regards

Leon Tepania
Marketing Manager
Hoare Research Software Ltd
Email: leon@hrs.co.nz

For all general enquiries please phone us on 0800 477 776

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