INDUSTRY

Building on the success of its six-month old "Knowledge in Motion™" education program, Visual Numerics Inc., a leading provider of numerical analysis and visualization software, today announced the formation of a new business unit focused exclusively on education programs and the academic community. Additionally, the company announced that Tim Leite has been named director of education programs and will oversee the new unit. During his 16-year tenure with Visual Numerics, Leite has had various programming, development, product management, technical support, and business development roles, giving him an excellent foundation for establishing educational partnerships and facilitating the computational requirements of the academic community. "Tim has been with Visual Numerics for many years, and his experience and knowledge about the academic arena's specific needs make him perfectly suited for this new role," said Phil Fraher, COO of Visual Numerics. "Our new education unit, combined with Tim's vision and expertise, will further establish Visual Numerics as a numerical analysis leader in education." A pioneer in bringing Java™-based statistical and mathematical technology to the classroom, Visual Numerics launched the Knowledge in Motion program in September 2003 to provide university professors the unique opportunity to use Visual Numerics' JMSL™ Numerical Library for Java applications for curriculum development. The company is expanding this program to offer more flexible licensing options and encourage a broader use of Visual Numerics software across university departments as a forum for collaboration on both curriculum development and research. "Visual Numerics is breaking down the barriers universities typically encounter when attempting to use commercial software for educational and collaborative research use," said Leite. "For more than 30 years, Visual Numerics has been committed to putting the most advanced numerical analysis and visualization tools in the hands of students and professors. I am pleased to take on this new role in furthering our mission and building stronger partnerships with our academic users." Under Leite's guidance, the key objectives of Visual Numerics' new Education Programs group include increasing the usage of Visual Numerics products among professors, researchers and students, supporting curriculum development, building strategic partnerships with key universities and professors, increasing awareness of Visual Numerics technology and expertise, as well as continuing the growth of the company's revenues from education. Bringing Commercial Java Numerics to the Classroom Knowledge in Motion was designed to enable university professors to leverage JMSL to develop applications in Java for a variety of computationally-based disciplines such as engineering, mathematics, statistics and computer science. The program is intended to encourage students to understand the concepts of numerical analysis and statistical methods with a broadly used, platform-independent language. Visual Numerics has modified its licensing policies and initiated new education programs to address changes in the education marketplace driven by the extension of classroom and research activities to the Web, the growing need to collaborate across university boundaries, the need for distance learning, and the increasing use of Java in education worldwide. Visual Numerics' Knowledge in Motion program has been highly successful over the past several months, and professors from prominent academic institutions like Hong Kong University, the University of Colorado and the University of Texas are using the JMSL Numerical Library to develop new applications and instructional aids for course curriculum. For example, Dr. Gary McClelland, psychology professor at the University of Colorado, has created a series of interactive applets that illustrate a variety of statistical principles. The applets rely on JMSL mathematics and statistics classes for the underlying computations, and JMSL charting classes for the visual component. Information on Dr. McClelland's project can be found at http://www.bolderstats.com/jmsl/doc/. "The Knowledge in Motion program has been a tremendous asset to me and to my students," said Dr. McClelland. "I develop my own class library of probability functions, statistical algorithms, and chart types to teach statistical concepts. Visual Numerics is giving us the rare opportunity to have direct interaction with Java applets, which allows students a hands-on understanding of underlying statistical principles. We are extremely thankful to be participating in this valuable program." For more information about the Knowledge in Motion program, to apply as a charter member, or to find out about special student discount pricing, visit: http://www.vni.com/solutions/education/programs.html.