Title:  The PSEware Project: Infrastructure for Building Problem-Solving
        Environments

Author: Randy Bramley
        Department of Computer Science
        Indiana University

Abstract:

A problem-solving environment (PSE) is an integrated software system for
solving a broad class of problems in an application domain.  Several PSEs have
been developed: examples are as diverse as Matlab for numerical linear algebra,
PetSc for scientific computing, and Quicken for personal finance.  The PSEware
project focuses on symbolic specifications, methods of reuse of object
structures for user interfaces and parallel execution, and collaboration
technologies for problem solving.  A key goal is not just the development of
individual PSEs, but the creation of tools which allow users to rapidly and
easily create their own PSEs.  However, we regard the development of PSEs as
both a reality check for the usability of the developed tools and as "point
solutions" for the general techniques.

Six institutions and over twenty researchers are part of the PSEware project.
This talk presents a brief overview of the research projects, some preliminary
conclusions, and future developments.