The biggest names in supercomputing have been brought together at modelingtheworld.com.

The highest-power computational efforts on the planet are working to solve science’s hardest problems, from protein folding and gene sequencing to climate modeling and quantum physics. Stimulant helped Microsoft Technical Computing illustrate their commitment to these cutting-edge efforts with an equally cutting-edge website.

ModelingTheWorld.com is a Silverlight-based website that features interactive HD videos of some of the most respected luminaries in the supercomputing field today. 15 are available now, with more throughout the year, and each has a rich array of time-synchronized “extras” that add context to the interviewees’ statements or link to other related videos. Synchronized transcripts enable captioning and non-linear navigation.

High performance computing comes alive through the stories of its own leaders.

Stimulant designed an entirely procedural layout engine to display all of the videos, reinforced by an intelligent particle system, to evoke a complex system of many elements that form a greater whole. The system features parameters such as gravity, attraction, and elasticity that allowed design and development team members to interactively dial in the look and feel. Subtle controls also exist for featuring some videos more than others. Particles swarm to videos the user is interested in. If the user wishes to browse in a more ordered way, such as by name or tag, all the elements intelligently make room for additional interface elements as they appear.

Stimulant’s deep background in digital media also allowed us to help art direct the look of all the interviews, to ensure that the emotional tone of the videos matched the exploration and playback environments. A richly interactive video experience is offered once a video is selected for viewing, built upon our past successes for Microsoft Research’s Project Tuva. Silverlight Smooth Streaming video automatically provides the right quality level for the user’s bandwidth, immediately and in real time.

ModelingTheWorld.com is a testament to Microsoft’s commitment to advancing the state of computing on a massive scale, and reaffirms Stimulant’s not-so-secret mission to use technology to tell stories in new and engaging ways.

InSite Studio enables collaborative access to real-time business analytics from distributed locations.

We’re on-site in Orlando this week helping SAP showcase their InSite Studio initiative on the Innovations Campus, which marries in-memory computing with a large-scale, Windows 7 touch-based UI and a Cisco TelePresence System 3000. The last slide of SAP chairman Hasso Plattner’s Sapphire 2009 keynote was a sketch of this idea, and we were asked to help bring his vision to life for SAPPHIRE Now. The solution enables business decision makers to drill down into business analytics, review data and make changes from distributed locations in real-time, using SAP’s suite of business software, a variety of devices, and a bespoke multi-touch interface designed and built by Stimulant. Our UI integrates deeply with Windows 7, providing an efficient way to control and share live applications via the Cisco TelePresence System 3000, using only touch. This is a massive engineering feat, and we’re thrilled to have had the pleasure of working side-by-side with the insanely talented folks on SAP’s Chairman’s Special Projects and Design Services teams. A full case study is forthcoming, but for now, come swing by the studio at SAPPHIRE Now — we’ll be demoing every hour until Wednesday.

This panel investigates and drills down into the practices that designers, developers and product owners are learning to use across their disciplines to ensure they successfully deliver their vision to engaged customers.

Our panel will lay out specific guidelines on how best to accomplish this—and showcase techniques like Wizard of Oz testing and running experiments in the working product. Strategies and systems will be explored to clearly address and answer questions such as: “When and how do I do my research?”, “Am I defining a solution or a system?”, and “Will my design ever be fully realized?”

We’re on at 2:35pm on Wednesday, May 05. Hope to see you at the show.

This role is the right fit for you if your attention to detail is unmatched, you can easily transform a dynamic brainstorm into an itemized list, and you get energized checking items off a list. You’ll be involved in every step of the project, from estimates and schedule creation to weekly management of clients and your team, all the way through to project launch. We’re looking for someone who can speak fluently with developers and designers, who can comprehend interaction design wireframes, and doesn’t shy away from technical conversations. You will be expected to manage multiple projects simultaneously. If the energy and excitement of a small company doing cutting-edge and never-before-seen work excites you, you’ve found the right home.

A project manager at Stimulant will:

• Manage project scope, schedule, deliverables, and client expectations
• Track all specifications, features, change orders, and other project documentation
• Formulate communication plans and project schedules to keep all eyes on the final goals and constraints
• Deeply collaborate with project team members, business development, and accounting
• Balance being a project team advocate with the needs and requests of the client
• Conduct internal project meetings and help build team consensus on challenging issues
• Ensure efficient and consistent meeting times with client and internal teams
• Take ownership of the tactical project plan while accepting the input of the whole team
• Guarantee timely delivery of invoices
• Negotiate with all parties to ensure the balance of schedule, features, and budget
• Shepherd the project’s vision through attention to detail, strategic and tactical planning, and supporting the internal team
• Conduct project post-mortems to ensure future process improvements

The ideal candidate will have

• A demonstrated ability to multi-task, organize, and improve process
• Flawless written and verbal communication
• Experience keeping projects on time and on budget
• Ability to handle stress with aplomb and, above all, humor
• Extreme comfort with asking questions, negotiation, raising flags, and navigating conflict
• Comfort and skill adapting to dynamic situations
• Extensive experience in the services industry
• Confidence with new technologies
• A passion for process, no matter how pragmatic or polished
• Talent with prioritizing, issue tracking, and scheduling
• Effective risk management strategies
• Fluency with the Windows operating system, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, and a variety of hosted project management tools such as Basecamp, Harvest, Trac, and the like.

Bing Mobile Application for Nokia

In early 2008, Microsoft announced that they’d be bringing Silverlight to the Nokia S60 platform and at Mix 2010, that effort took a big step forward with the beta release of the plugin for Symbian. Stimulant, which has been working with Silverlight on mobile platforms since its inception, was chosen (along with a few other elite agencies) to participate, helping deliver applications to showcase the runtime.

The application Stimulant worked on is a mobile variant of the Bing Bar desktop application. Stimulant worked closely with the Bing team and was able to reuse a significant portion of code and existing graphic assets, while adding in mobile-specific interactivity for this unique form factor. Much of the Bing Bar’s functionality has been ported, including stocks, weather, and real-time feeds of MSN content.

Got an S60 phone? Point your mobile browser at the demo application, located at http://silverlight.net/content/samples/s60/bing, and experience Bing in the palm of your hand.

As our projects routinely mix familiar territory with the never-before-seen, you should feel as comfortable retooling an existing project for a new client as you do venturing into uncharted waters. Our developers are responsible for bringing the creative vision to life, and as such have design-minded sensibilities and a keen eye for pixel-perfection. We’re looking for someone who thinks visually, and who puts as much time into the elegance of his/her code as he/she does into the end-user experience. Most of your time will be spent programming user interfaces, but you’ll likely end up pushing the boundaries of OS and or back-end integration as well. While it’s expected that you’ll have your own tools and processes for coding, you should be comfortable both adapting to and recommending best practices for the entire team. We’re less concerned about how long you’ve been working; we’re looking for well-honed skills and a portfolio of past projects that you’re proud of. It’s important that you’ve had experience executing paid work, however, as these types of projects present a unique set of time-constraints and pressures that will be critical to your success in this environment.

We’re looking for folks with:

• an exacting attention to detail
• the ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects
• excellent oral and written communications skills
• a proactive, team-player attitude
• familiarity with various project/team collaboration tools such as Basecamp, Harvest, Google Apps, and the like.
• a portfolio of past projects, including WPF and/or Silverlight and/or XNA technologies
• the ability to come up to speed on new technologies quickly
• a high level of comfort with Microsoft Windows, the Microsoft Expression tools, Visual Studio, the C# programming language, and source control and bug tracking systems
• Basic web development skills, experience with C++ and/or Objective C, and an interest in hacking off-the-shelf hardware into new configurations are a plus.
• Real-world experience working with multi-touch, multi-user and gestural UI are a big win.

This position can be filled in either our Seattle or San Francisco offices.

As an integrator at Stimulant, you’ll be responsible for the visual perfection of Stimulant’s software projects. As a project’s features begin to come together, you’ll follow behind the lead developer and apply the visual styles to UI controls that are provided by the design team. For the most part, this will involve editing or hand-coding XAML in Expression Blend, but will also include some C# development. Your creativity will come into play as you fill in the design gaps, adding things like press states and transitions that are consistent with the overall design. As the project wraps up, you’ll work with QA to solve any visual bugs in the project. You’ll also directly support the content management team, helping to format, deploy and maintain content and assets for projects.

The ideal candidate will have:

• a fluency in the language and idiosyncrasies of design, coupled with an exacting attention to detail
• the ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects
• excellent oral and written communications skills
• a proactive, team-player attitude
• familiarity with various project/team collaboration tools such as Basecamp, Harvest, Google Apps, and the like.
• the ability to come up to speed on new technologies quickly
• a high level of expertise with Microsoft Windows, the Expression tools, Visual Studio, the C# programming language, and source control and bug tracking systems
• general web development and deployment skills

This position can be filled in either our Seattle or San Francisco offices.

It’s musical, it’s magical, and it’s free. Stimulant is thrilled to announce the release of TouchTones as a freeware application for Microsoft Surface.

TouchTones (formerly ToneGrid) is a multi-user collaborative music maker that doesn’t require any musical knowledge in order to make something beautiful. Just tap the colored spheres to get them started and change the melody in real time! TouchTones has a range of innovative features:

• TouchTones features four sounds and a four-octave “grid,” which acts like a keyboard.
• Up to four people can use TouchTones at once.
• Symmetrical controls on all sides let any user control any sound.
• Holding down a colored button while tapping an arrow with another lets the user play the grid like an instrument. You can even play chords!
• Volume control, reset button, and integrated help video makes learning and playing a snap.
• No written instructions are needed to learn how to use TouchTones!

TouchTones is being made available for free for any Microsoft Surface running Service Pack 1 or higher. If you’re interested in having Stimulant visually reskin the application, replace the stock sounds with something custom, or want additional features, just ask. TouchTones is designed to be fully customized to meet your specific branding goals. Feel free to contact us for any general inquiries regarding TouchTones.

To learn more about TouchTones, or to download the installer, visit Stimulant’s Product Page.