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A recent Maplesoft survey reveals engineers and scientists still rely on traditional hand calculations despite characterising engineering as a ‘modern field’

Maplesoft™, developer of some of the most popular software tools for engineering, science and maths supplied and supported by Adept Scientific, today announced that according to an international survey, mathematical calculations in engineering and academia are still most often performed with pencil and paper. On a daily basis, respondents turn to scratchpads and calculators more frequently than any other tool for mathematical tasks. The same survey also revealed this community largely considers its field of work and study to be “fully modern” and “taking full advantage of modern tools and technology.”

These results are drawn from an extensive, international survey of scientists, engineers and researchers across a variety of markets, including aerospace, automotive, electronics, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, life sciences, finance and education. With more than 2000 participants, the survey offers unprecedented insight into the daily practices, experiences and perceptions of the technical user community.

When questioned about how frequently they used a range of tools and resources for design and analysis:

- 52% indicated that they use “hand calculations (calculators) and paper” daily, with an additional 21% citing it as a weekly practice;
- 47% of respondents indicated that the next most common resources used daily are “electronic references and tables (e.g. CD-ROM, Web),” with another 26% using them weekly;
- 35% indicated that they use “print reference books and tables” daily, with another 31% using them weekly; and
- 39% indicated daily use of spreadsheets, which remain the most common software tool used in analysis and design. Another 31% of users employ them weekly.

“It is startling to see such hard data revealing the continued reliance on tools and practices that require so much manual effort and leave so much room for error,” said Jim Cooper, CEO of Maplesoft. “This is a user base that is charged with driving innovation, exploring the cutting edge and bringing the best new products and services to market and yet, to a large extent, they are holding onto outdated and outmoded practices. So much of their important work will remain locked in their notebooks and lost to the layers of their spreadsheets rather than captured and carried forward with all of their logic and thinking documented.”

The Maplesoft survey was open to all engineering professionals, including design engineers, research scientists, field engineers, project managers, consultants and teachers. From December 2005 to February 2006, 2092 participants from the United States, Canada, Germany, the UK and Japan filled out the extensive online questionnaire covering topic like collaboration and communication, design and analysis tools and overall perception of the design environment.

Click here to download the full report of the survey findings

Full details of the Maplesoft range of software tools and contact information for all Adept Scientific international offices are available at www.adeptscience.com; or telephone +44 (0)1462 480055.

With offices in the UK, USA, Germany and throughout the Nordic region, Adept Scientific is one of the world’s leading suppliers of software and hardware products for research, scientific, engineering and technical applications on desktop computers.