A Tool TH to Test and Evaluate Scientific Computations

Brian T. Smith, Numerica 21 Inc
Seminar

The test harness TH is a tool developed by Numerica 21 to facilitate the testing and evaluation of scientific software during the development and maintenance phases of such software. This presentation describes how the tool can be used to measure uncertainty in scientific computations. It confirms that the actual behavior of the code when subjected to changes, typically small, in the code input data reflects formal analysis of the problem\'s sensitivity to its input. Although motivated by studying small changes in the input data, the test harness can measure the impact of any change, including those that go beyond the formal analysis.