Maple in Japan

Mr. Yoshiyasu Ueno is a professor of Communications at The University of Electrocommunications in Chofu, Tokyo. In this interview, he describes how he uses the Japanese version of Maple in his research at the NEC Optical Network Institute in Tsukuba. (Translated from the Japanese article published in PC User magazine.)

What got you started using Maple?
My area of specialisation is the development of various optical devices, more specifically, the structural design of next-generation high-speed optical switching devices, and semiconductor lasers for DVD players. Generally speaking, R&D departments must conduct lots of calculations and experiments under fairly severe time constraints. For this reason, the efficiency of the software is always very important. In the past, there was a software called REDUCE, which was designed for large computers, but not many of us could use it. Later I read an article in a mathematical journal that featured a comparative analysis of Maple and Mathematica®. I started to use Maple because the article ranked Maple higher.

What were the advantages of using Maple in your research?
FORTRAN and BASIC were the languages I was using at that time, but compared to these, Maple was overwhelmingly easy to use. I could produce the same calculations in a much shorter period of time. The same applies to graphics. Graphics is the greatest advantage of using Maple. Fractions and matrices can also be freely expressed, so that it is easy to check the result visually. Matrix operations and calculations with complex numbers are found everywhere in scientific research, but it was tedious to do the programming using other software or programming languages. In this respect I valued the convenience of Maple. I also use Maple for presentations, and its 3-D representations are truly excellent. You can produce an extraordinarily beautiful expression, which cannot be done with Microsoft® Excel.

What are some of the useful features of newer versions of Maple?
Not only the improvement in speed but also the Japanese Balloon Help and Tutorial are very useful. I am planning to offer graduate level courses using Maple, and since the software is user-friendly, it makes the materials more accessible. The time is ripe now, I think, to make a strong appeal to people involved in broader fields, not only to those in numerical analysis, theoretical engineering, or in education. I recommend it as a tool for a variety of needs of engineers involved in all areas of design.Maple is a powerful assistant to people who develop products and technologies, with a minimum effort of programming.

Cybernet Systems Inc. distributes Maple in Japan. The most recent version, Maple 8 Japanese Edition, was released in October of 2002.

This interview was originally carried in PC USER http://www.sbpnet.jp/pcuser Softbank Publishing Inc. http://www.sbpnet.jp

Article: Maple in Japan