QUICK FACTS
Professors and faculty at Virginia Tech have used the IMSL Fortran Libraries for over 25 years to solve complex chemical engineering problems such as developing even-flow extrusion dies for manufacturing processes, and to teach students how to use the accurate and reliable IMSL math and stat algorithms to solve problems in the real world.

THE PROBLEM
Don Baird, a chemical engineering professor at Virginia Tech, first learned about the IMSL Libraries by Visual Numerics over twenty years ago and began teaching it to his students in the mid 80s. “I had read so much about IMSL, that I knew it could do what I needed it to do for my work and for my students”, said Professor Baird. “It is an excellent teaching tool that students can take into the real world after they graduate.”

The Chemical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech needed some heavy-duty code to build and expand upon a variety of complex models. The Department builds a broad range of applications such as models for computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, molecular modeling, and heat and mass transfer. There is also a special focus on the analysis of manufacturing processes, which includes the use of extrusion dies. Professor Baird and his students model the flow of polymers in an extrusion die to optimize the manufacturing of parts. They monitor how the fluid flows through the manifold into the extrusion die, and they develop models for how to optimize the process and get the fluid to flow evenly over the die.

In order to solve these types of problems, Professor Baird needed a flexible, reliable and accurate development tool for building complex models. He also did not want the students to have to waste time building the algoritms from scratch. For those reasons, he turned to the IMSL Fortran Library, Visual Numerics’ Fortran Library, many years ago and has never looked back.

THE SOLUTION
Professor Baird continues to use the IMSL Fortran Library of more than 1,000 accurate, robust and reliable Fortran numerical analysis routines. He actively teaches it in the classroom for undergraduate and graduate students and has continued to use it for his own practice.

“The IMSL Fortran Library is extremely robust. It has a broad base of routines that are very useful in my work and it is easy to use. It allows you to extend subroutines for more complex problem solving. The students don’t have to spend time building code; they just have to learn how to apply it to their problems. This saves a lot of unnecessary and complex programming so they can learn other things,” said Professor Baird.

Professor Baird has found that nothing else has the high-end capabilities to manage the complex problems he needs to solve. “I ran one problem that took 8 hours with another product and it only took a few seconds with IMSL,” said Professor Baird. “I think that speaks for itself.”

He quickly learned that once students became familiar with the IMSL Fortran Library, they would never have a need to turn back and learn another development tool.

Professor Baird feels so strongly about the capabilities of the IMSL Fortran Library, he references it throughout his book “Polymer Processing Principles and Design”. Above all, he claims that the IMSL Fortran Library is an excellent base for his students, exposing them to a methodology that will serve them well in the real world. IMSL enables Professor Baird and his students to focus on the important problems at hand. “The range of problems it can solve is much broader than anything else out there,” says Professor Baird.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT
When asked to describe the benefits that the IMSL Fortran Library has brought to Virginia Tech, Professor Baird explains, once again, that it is all about his students. “If I can teach them what they need to know and they can get good jobs because of it, then we have done our job here. The return comes back to us when the kids are successful. When the students are successful, the University is successful.” He goes on to point out that students return to Virginia Tech with research grants and the like so it is in the best interest of everyone to teach with the best possible tools. “We have to push our students so that they learn how to solve problems, the IMSL Fortran Library saves us a lot of time and unnecessary programming so that we can get on with the problems at hand,” he adds.