CSIRO shares free software to visualise scientific datasets

CSIRO has released free software which offers scientists and researchers an easy way to analyse, model and visualise scientific datasets. Workspace is purpose-built for scientific applications and allows researchers to present their findings through visualisations.

Source: CSIRO. Simulated liquid flow with
velocity magnitude information mapped
onto a meshed surface.

The data visualisations can help scientists make their research more understandable and accessible. "If others can easily grasp what your science means, this opens it up to brand new audiences," said Dr John Taylor from CSIRO's Digital Productivity Flagship. 

"This not only helps researchers engage with the public, but it also allows them to reach out to other collaborators in the science community and industry.

Workspace has already been used for a wide range of projects at CSIRO, including natural disaster modelling, human movement and industrial and agricultural research. One CSIRO team has already used the software to model and visualise simulations for storm surges and flash flooding, helping with disaster management planning. Working with the Australian Institute of Sport, another team has produced a 3D biomechanical computer model of different swimming strokes, allowing athletes to adjust their technique for maximum performance.

Workspace has also been used successfully by research institutions including the Australian National University, Macquarie University and the University of New South Wales.

"In institutions all around the world, researchers operate within similar workflows; sourcing data, analysing it, processing it - often using high-performance computing environments," Dr Taylor said. "Very often, this involves a number of manual repetitive steps. Workspace makes these steps easy to automate. In one application, analysis that had previously taken two weeks to conduct manually was carried out in less than an hour."

According to Dr Taylor, Workspace users don't need the advanced programming skills. "At the moment, scientists often have to write their own purpose-built code from scratch - even when this is not their primary skill set," he said. "This approach is inefficient, prone to error, difficult to reproduce by other scientists and unsuitable to take into the commercial world.

"Workspace can be used by non-software experts, allowing scientists from all over the globe to use the same platform and collaborate seamlessly on projects."

Workspace was launched late October at the 2014 eResearch Australasia Conference. It is free to download for research purposes and can be licensed for commercial applications. Click here to download the software.