14:00
In STFC's Computational Mathematics Group, we work alongside scientists at large-scale National Facilities, such as ISIS Neutron and Muon source, Diamond Light Source, and the Central Laser Facility. For each of these groups, non-linear least squares fitting is a vital part of their scientific workflow. In this talk I will describe FitBenchmarking, a software tool we have developed to benchmark the performance of different non-linear least squares solvers on real-world data. It is designed to be easily extended, so that new data formats and new minimizers can be added. FitBenchmarking will allow (i) scientists to determine objectively which fitting engine is optimal for solving their problem on their computing architecture, (ii) scientific software developers to quickly test state-of-the-art algorithms in their data analysis software, and (iii) mathematicians and numerical software developers to test novel algorithms against realistic datasets, and to highlight characteristics of problems where the current best algorithms are not sufficient.