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Maple Helps Improve Power Losses in DC-DC Converters
 Everyone from business travelers to weekend warriors understands the importance of battery life and the frustration of dealing with drained laptop batteries. Because approximately 200 million computers are manufactured in the world each year, this issue is not trivial. Alan Elbanhawy, a power systems industry expert, investigates ways to optimize battery life in notebook computers.He worked with the widely popular engineering and mathematics software Maple from Maplesoft to develop three applications dealing in great depth with power loss mechanisms in these converters. The research helped engineers better understand the power losses inherent in these devices and enabled them to refine their design process, save energy, and help the environment.
Maple helps research next-generation seat belt restraints aimed at reducing passenger injury in automotive collisions
 Pre-crash shoulder belt tensioning is a new technology designed to reduce automotive crash injuries.Pre-crash tensioning technology increases the opportunity to secure a passenger safely before a crash. Sensors and logic, designed to anticipate a crash, activate a motorized seat belt retractor that secures a shoulder belt around an occupant before the crash. Craig Good, a partner at Collision Analysis (Calgary) Ltd. and Ph.D. graduate at the University of Calgary used Maplesoft products to create a 2-D occupant model, using experimentally measured data. Once the model was created, it gave Good the flexibility to evaluate different scenarios to optimize the system.
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Professor of Mathematics redefines math education with the help of Maple
 “Mathematics is not old or static; it is alive and students need to experience it,”exclaims Professor Laureano Gonzalez-Vega, describing his philosophy on math education. In his years of teaching, Prof. Gonzalez-Vega has realized that students spend a lot of time trying to understand the mathematic and scientific formulas that are the basis for concepts in scientific or engineering programs, often without much success. He introduced Maple in his courses and Prof. Gonzalez-Vega noticed positive changes in his students’ approach and in their results. With the new software, the students found it much easier and faster to solve problems and understand the mathematics.
University of Guelph partners with Maplesoft to measure the effect of technology in the classroom
 Most educators agree that technology can have a beneficial impact on mathematics students, and ample anecdotal evidence from individual teachers and classes supports that position. What is less clear is the extent of the impact of emerging technology on student success, the types of tools that provide the most benefit, and the best practices to achieve these benefits. The University of Guelph, in partnership with Maplesoft, has launched a multi-year project to study these questions and to evolve the next generation of teaching techniques. In addition to Maple™, which has been used in many classrooms for years, the project employs newer technologies such as Maple T.A.™ (Maplesoft’s automated system for exercises and assignments), e-books, chat rooms, and blogging sites.
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