First of all thanks everyone for their continuing support and feedback.  The download counter has risen to over 1500 downloads (+/- 500 thanks to Ukrainian bots) spanning 70+ countries. It has been a rewarding experience seeing so many different people from such varied and distinguished organizations using my software. Sadly it is time for MCSEM.com to come to a close.

 

So What's Next for MCSEM.com?

I started MCSEM.com as a way to share my software and work developed as part of my PhD. So now that my PhD has finally completed I will be decommissioning this website. I will keep MCSEM.com  active and hosted for the next several years while I find a place to migrate the software and articles. I would like to migrate the software with still an existing geophysical open source consortium so if anybody has any ideas of where the software should reside please contact me.

CSEM Software From Inception...

I was 20 when I first devised of a CSEM modelling package, now at 26 I have a much clearer idea of how software should be structured and more largely the requirements for geophysical software development.  Software takes effort to create but good robust software takes dedication. I have been diligently adding to and modifying CSEMoMatic over these last 6 years and it has developed SIGNIFICANTLY from simple C code to a complex multi-dimensional Electromagnetic modelling and inversion platform written in Java. I co-wrote the first version with my friend Sean Phillips as part of his Honours Thesis for rapid generation of CSEM data for feasibility studies (Check out his work, it's a good read). The program took manual input and output the marine CSEM data into an easily importable format.

The first CSEM modelling program written in conjunction with Sean Phillips back in 2007. Written in C, received user input and rapidly create input files.

The first CSEM modelling program written in conjunction with Sean Phillips back in 2007. Written in C, received user input and rapidly create input files.

The work with Sean got me hooked on CSEM, so the following year I chose to continue the work of developing marine CSEM software for my Honours project. The first "CSEMoMatic" version was created. It was only a wrapper containing a simple EM data structure and some basic IO controls. Its main purpose was to convert CSEM data into other formats. (Check out my work, it's just as good)

The first version of CSEMoMatic written in Java. This was written to be a wrapper for the Marco EM modelling program.

The first version of CSEMoMatic written in Java. This was written to be a wrapper for the Marco EM modelling program.

Sure I like making software, but using off the shelf compiled packages is so much easier. So at the start of my PhD I hated the fact that nothing had been created ...my fault researching into a new geophysical field. I looked around at my PhD colleagues in the more established seismic and rock physics fields, I realized they had great software and only occasional needed to venture into Matlab if something more complex was required. I was jealous, but it's no point lamenting that nothing exists. After 6 months of toil I had something which others could use.

CSEMoMatic modelling a resistive "CSEM" body in a conductive earth with strong bathymetry

CSEMoMatic modelling a resistive "CSEM" body in a conductive earth with strong bathymetry

 

The resulting electric field. CSEMoMatic.

The resulting electric field. CSEMoMatic.

While my software was useful, I made a lot of mistakes needed to re-design the software to handle more complex and larger datasets. CSEMoMatic Omnium was an overhaul of CSEMoMatic. The major changes being the data model and the visualization. The original version only allowed a traditional ocean bottom survey with towed electrical source  while Omnium allowed any electromagnetic survey design and geometry. The visualization was drastically improved by moving from Swing to Java OpenGL. Interactively modelling and viewing the fields in 3D was certainly a challenge but was probably the most exciting part of my PhD. I have stopped at this point while it is still in BETA for a number of reasons. Firstly my PhD is over, but more importantly I want to aim for something a larger than marine CSEM.

 

CSEMoMatic Omnium and its sweet 3D viz.

CSEMoMatic Omnium and its sweet 3D viz.

 

So Where to Now?

I want to develop great geophysical software and bring geophysics (non-seismic) software  into the 21st century. You may have noticed, nothing seems to have changed on this site for the last 8 months or so. That's because I am in the middle of developing my super-secret project. So what does it do? Like many of the successful software companies (Looking at you Geosoft), they started as facilitators for potential field geoscientific work, using the work of others and integrating it all in the one package. Like others I plan to be a facilitator (or a good communicator) between geophysical software packages and geophysical data standards, enabling forward modelling, inversion, joint inversion, joint forward modelling and visualization across multiple geophysical methods.

I am in the middle of developing a common geophysical framework. I plan to start with Wireline logs (Since they are the easiest to deal with) and move on to Airborne Inversion by mid 2014. For your interest I've included a couple of teaser screenshots below.

A teaser of the user interface. No this is not a mockup, it is actually running. Keep in mind that most of the work is being made behind the scenes, It will have massively parallel cloud/server based capabilities.

A teaser of the user interface. No this is not a mockup, it is actually running. Keep in mind that most of the work is being made behind the scenes, It will have massively parallel cloud/server based capabilities.

 

Simple wireline log visualization. I have designed this software to be able to quickly integrate geophysical data standards and executable. I was happy to integrate the LAS file format in a single day (~10 hours). So once the framework is up and running I expect rapid progress.

Simple wireline log visualization. I have designed this software to be able to quickly integrate geophysical data standards and executable. I was happy to integrate the LAS file format in a single day (~10 hours). So once the framework is up and running I expect rapid progress.

At some point I plan to quit my day job as a researcher and write code full time. No offense to Curtin University, I've enjoyed my time. I have a vision I want to bring to reality. So either I work for a research consortium (While some good ones exists, I will most likely be bound by red tape instead of coding- Unacceptable!) , develop it as an open source project (make no money and eat noodles for the rest of my life - Better but also unacceptable!), raise capital and commercialize it (Likely - Any Takers?) or form my own open source foundation or find one with the same goals as myself and raise funding to create free and open source software (Morally better - Still... Any Takers?).

I am looking at a late 2014 beta release for my software. So those who are interested in being part of a beta program please contact me.

Finally

Thanks for being part of the MCSEM.com experiment!