The MATLAB Tour 2011 kicked off yesterday here in Boston! I had the privilege to attend this awesome one-day event. Here are my notes:

Keynote Presentation
Practicing data driven research is not easy. You have too much data to analyze or you don’t know how to validate your models with your data. The keynote demonstrated how you can use MATLAB and Simulink to tackle these common challenges. One demo used Parallel Computing Toolbox to speed up the analysis of large meteorological data sets and the other demo employed Model-Based Design to bring hybrid cars from conception to production. Don’t worry if you don’t know much about meteorology or hybrid car design, as the examples are used to illustrate how MathWorks tools can help you practice data driven research.

MATLAB and Simulink updates
Following the keynote, the MATLAB Today presentation covered many noteworthy MATLAB features introduced in recent years. I have listed my favorite ones here:

• Spreadsheet import tool – importing spreadsheets made easy
• Dataset Arrays – store and manipulate mixed data types
• System Objects – requires basic knowledge of OOP but great for iterative computations and long data sets
• MATLAB Coder – generate C and C++ code from MATLAB code
• GPU and Cloud Computing – take advantage of the latest computing innovations

I know this blog is catered to MATLAB users, but some of the Simulink updates are also very intriguing.

• Team collaboration with Simulink Projects – file management and source control
• Simscape – build models like you would build a physical system

Afternoon Sessions
The afternoon sessions focused on specific topics and workflows in MATLAB or Simulink. I attended two sessions.

Data-Fitting Techniques with MATLAB
If you are interested in questions like “Which mathematical model do I use?” or “Which parameters are most important in my model?” you will want to join the data fitting session and learn some MATLAB techniques and functions.

Generate, Verify, and Integrate C Code from Your MATLAB Algorithms
If you are curious to see MATLAB Coder in action, this session provides a walkthrough of integrating your application into a C environment. There are some serious time savings using this workflow.

Final Thoughts
Aside from learning new features at this event and win some prizes, it is a great opportunity to network. I certainly enjoyed my conversations with the attendees.