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STEM FAQ
Where should I start?
To learn about how to use STEM, please read the Tutorials
The most important tutorial is probably the one that teaches about Creating a STEM Scenario
To learn about the design of STEM, please read the STEM Design Document
What platforms are supported?
STEM will run on any platform supported by Eclipse. Downloads are available for RCP versions of Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. Java 1.6 and the latest is required. The STEM development environment requires the latest version of Eclipse. If a downloadable RCP version is not available for your platform, you must download the STEM source from Eclipse and run from the source.
What features are new?
Please see What's New in STEM
What are other features are available in STEM?
- A full implementation of the STEM graph based simulation engine for spatiotemporal modeling
- Geographic visualization of the spread of disease using internally implemented graphics
- Geographic visualization of the spread of disease using Google Earth
- "Wizards" to create Projects, Graphs, Models, Scenarios, Sequencers, and Diseases
- Visual editors to edit Graphs, Models, Scenarios, Sequencers, and Diseases
- A complete data set that defines all of the countries specified by the ISO-3166 standard includes area land mass and recent human population data
- A complete Lat/Long data set in Geography Markup Language (GML) format for all countries defined by the ISO-3166 standard
- An extensive set of predefined "Graph" fragments that can be reused in user Models
- An extensive set of predefined "Models", one for each country, that can be reused in user Models and Scenarios
- A set of predefined "Scenarios" that illustrate disease spread models around the Earth
- A wide variety of mathematical models of infectious disease
- Lots more. We are adding features all the time
What features are planned for future releases?
For the latest release and plan information, please visit the STEM Project Plan Page
Can STEM be used for more than just disease modeling?
In principle, yes. The core components of STEM implement a graph based spatiotemporal simulation engine. The components that extend it to disease modeling are in separate plug-ins and integrate themselves using Eclipse extension points. Today we are focused on supporting a framework for modeling diseases. In order to model diseases one must also model populations, transportation, etc. So STEM is really a way to build models on top of other models. Some models, like models of insect vectors, may depend on global data including things like climate factors. All this "denominator" data is available as STEM plugins. Some users have build higher level economic models on top of disease models in STEM.
Where can I find some tutorials on STEM?
- Tutorials for Developers
- STEM Tutorials on YouTubeTM
- Full length video In English
- Full length video In Hebrew
- Full length video In Japanese
- Full length video In Spanish
- 5 min Video (English)
Where can I learn about the design of STEM?
Are there publications where I can read more about STEM ?
Publications and Presentations on STEM
How can I contribute to STEM ?
Please see How to Join the STEM Community
You may also contact the STEM developers
New Contributors to STEM are always welcome. This includes not only researchers interested in disease modeling but also experts in GIS data or any other data that might be important in understanding or modeling the spread of infectious disease. We also welcome input from users and contributions to our documentation.
To contribute to STEM, please use the standard Eclipse process. Open a "bug" in our bugzilla (https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/) A bug can be more than just a new defect - it can also be a new feature or other contribution. You can attach your contribution as a "patch" to your bug (http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Bug_Reporting_FAQ) Please also feel free to e-mail the STEM development team, many of whom are Eclipse Committers The STEM Development Team. For those interested in joining the project, we also have a weekly phone call and a newsgroup, etc.
Where can I get more help ?
Please start by reading the extensive documentation on our wiki and our website. The STEM community also has a weekly conference call. The call is held most Thursdays at 12PM ET (9AM PDT). For more information, or if you wish to join, please send mailto:judyvdouglas@verizon.net