The PolyMath Development Group

PolyMath is the umbrella project for all of CECM's investigations into providing sophisticated, network-based, environments for working in the mathematical sciences. These investigations are cutting-edge probes into the future of digital information and networking and into the future of how we do science on a Provincial, Federal and Global level. The PolyMath Development Group is studying the latest technologies, from emerging ultrafast networks to Sun Microsystem's Java language and sophisticated network communication systems like CORBA. We do this as a team inside one of the world's top mathematical research groups and the technology we are developing is designed to serve the very special needs of science education and research. Those technologies range from the academic to industrial-grade, and from the classroom to space. The components of PolyMath are as follows:

• Our Members, both of the PDG, and the general PolyMath Consortium.
• PolyLAB, our facility for advanced collaborative networking, and the Sun Technology and Research Excellence Centre for 21st Century Network Computing.
• M3Plexus: Multi-Modal Mathematics
• NAOMI, the North American OpenMath Initiative, co-founded by PolyMath. Part of our work with the international OpenMath Consortium.
• PDG OpenMath Dev Team, the folks here at PDG who actually implement OpenMath systems.
• Polylab Space Systems Team, ongoing research into space-based and space-related applications of collaborative technology.
• Distributed Institute Networking, our study of potential collaborative communication systems for scientific environments like those found at CECM and the Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences, as well as forming the core for our M3Plexus systems. Technologies in development are based around PolyNet, our next-generation core network communication system for the mathematical sciences, for talking between anything from tools to people. The idea is to distribute sophisticated computing resources throughout the world to anybody with `basic' network and computing access in a way that does not compromise functionality, and enhances communication, collaboration, research, and education. Components are:
  • PolyNet X2, the advanced prototype which represents the next phase of our networking research, in which we move into distributed object computing, and high-speed (ATM and faster) communication. PolyNet X2 supports both distributed object networking and standard socket communication, to provide a bridge between many different types of services.
  • PolyServ, our project working on the management of distributed scientific services.
  • Mediated Resource Brokerage, our Pioneer project for Canada's High Performance Computing network, on the provision of a National agent-oriented computing resource brokerage system.
  • Virtual Institute Network
    This is our first proof of concept investigation into the technologies needed for distributed institute networking. The resulting ideas are then applied to our more advanced PolyNet systems.
    • Demo of VIN
    • Screenshots of VIN display
    • Overview of the VIN network
    • Details of the VIN topology
    • Details of the VIN protocol
    • News of the advanced Beta client
    • The Future of Mathematical Science Communication
• Semantic Mathematical Translation, systems that extract the mathematics from documents and translate it into a form that can be manipulated on a computer:
  • Latex2OM: Our LaTeX to OpenMath-like language translator, using Wildlife, an artificial intelligence language. We have a demo available.
  • OM2All: Our OpenMath to everything else translators, one in Wildlife (for Maple), and one in Java. We also have a version that feeds maple directly.
• The Inverse Symbolic Calculator, from numbers back to equations.
• Industrial Relationships, where we work with many companies and try our best to apply what we do to present-day problems.
• Papers, publish or perish!
• Press Stories, about PDG and PolyLAB.

Meetings

• PolyMath, at 4pm on Tuesdays in the CECM meeting room. General group meeting.
• PolyMath OpenMath JavaBeans Meeting, at 2pm on Thursdays. Discussion of use of PDG technology, and future developments.
• PolyVision, at 4pm on Thursdays in the CECM meeting room. Educational vision and policy meetings.
• Daily status meetings, 11am every weekday, in the Director's office. Project status overview.

News groups

• Poly.Disc, for General PolyMath Consortium discussions.
• Poly.IPS, for discussions of the PolyMath/Island Pacific School Project. Restricted Access.
• Poly.IDA, for discussions of the RIACA/PolyMath IDA Project. Restricted Access (IDA project members only).
• Poly.OpenMath, for discussions by local OpenMath Dev team. Restricted Access.
• Poly.Space, for news and discussions about Space. Restricted Posting (PolyMath Space Team Only).
• Poly.ESA, for news and discussions of European Space Agency tender requests, bids, and projects. Restricted Access (PolyMath ESA Contractual Group Only).

Developer's Resources

• Java
• MathEdge, PDG access only
• Design Patterns Home Page

Related Information

• Map of the Canadian network
• The BC Rnet ATM network
• OpenMath Project
• Sun Microsystems
• Silicon Graphics