February 15, 2011 (Vol. 31, No. 4)
URL:
http://ccsl.mae.cornell.edu/eureqa
Rating:
Strong Points: Good user support additional to download
Weak Points: Plain site design
Summary:
A free downloadable software tool that can analyze your data for you? Eureka! (Oh wait, that one’s been taken already… How about Eureqa? Yeah, that works…) Change the spelling all you want, but the excitement implied by the original sentiment remains. That is because Eureqa holds huge potential for data analysis in fields such as genomics and proteomics, where the underlying logic behind the system has been rather elusive for scientists. Eureqa detects equations and hidden mathematical relationships in datasets through a process of refining mathematical models to fit the data. The website for Eureqa, located at the Cornell Computational Synthesis Laboratory, contains not only the software download, but also a video tutorial and user forum, a link to the Eureqa blog, and links to many citations and articles for more information.