NASA release of OpenMDAO (Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization) Version 0.12.0

Release of OpenMDAO Version 0.12.0:

OpenMDAO Version 0.12.0 was released recently. NASA is leading the development of OpenMDAO, an open-source Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization (MDAO) framework used in engine analysis to link together separate pieces of software for the purpose of combined analysis The release included support for the Anaconda Python, a scripting language, which supports large-scale data processing, and simplifies the OpenMDAO installation process. This version of OpenMDAO included a major improvement to the data-passing and automatic derivatives capabilities which yielded a 50% reduction in compute time for a benchmark MDAO problem. An updated parametric geometry interface was developed that allowed geometry tools to integrate with the derivatives system. All of these capabilities combine to enable OpenMDAO to solve a huge array of complex MDAO problems and allow it to serve as the benchmarking tool suite for evaluating MDAO problems. OpenMDAO version 0.12.0 has recently been adopted by researchers at United Technologies Corporation (UTC) with an interest in building a cloud based scalable simulation environment. They have funded an initial internal research and development effort, and NASA Glenn Research Center's Justin Gray is providing support via twice monthly telecoms.