From steel drums to satellites: how open-source software is changing science

Dr. Jack Hale and Dr. Michal Habera are part of a global team of scientists that have been awarded the 2026 by the and the for their research in the development of mathematical software.

When engineers design safer airplanes, epidemiologists model how diseases spread, or physicists study how materials crack under pressure, they end up with equations. But turning those equations into something a computer can solve has long required years of specialised training. In the Department of Engineering, Dr. Jack Hale and Dr. Michal Habera are working to change this. Through their work on the , an open-source scientific computing platform, they are making it faster and easier to transform mathematical models into powerful simulations. This approach enables simulations ranging from understanding how musical instruments produce sound to improving the design of aircraft, satellites, and high-performance engineering components.

A language for scientific computing

Many scientific phenomena can be described by partial differential equations (PDEs). These equations capture how physical quantities, such as the concentration of chemicals, or the motion of a building, evolve in space and time. But solving them exactly with pen and paper is usually impossible. Instead, scientists rely on numerical methods, such as the finite element method, which breaks complex problems into many smaller parts that a computer can solve.

Programming these methods on a computer, however, is often a major hurdle. “Building a fast, correct, and adaptable finite element method solver from scratch requires a lot of specialist knowledge across mathematics, computer science, and software engineering”, explains Michal.

FEniCS aims to shift that complexity away from the user. “We wanted people to be able to code simulation problems without needing to know complicated programming, and still have the computer produce fast, optimised code”, says Jack. In practice, this means researchers can write equations on the computer in a form that closely matches how they appear on paper, and then FEniCS can automatically generate an efficient solver.

Steel drums, space engineering and education

The impact of FEniCS can be seen globally across both academia and industry. For Jack, one favourite example comes from researchers at Harvard University, who used FEniCS to study the unique sound of the Caribbean steel drum. Their simulations showed how the instrument’s shape helps “trap” vibrations in each region, allowing distinct musical notes to emerge.

In industry, the software is used in high-performance engineering. Luxembourg-based company , who collaborated with Jack and Michal on an FNR Industrial Fellowship, applies it to optimise the design of components in race cars, satellites and aircraft.

Beyond research, tools like FEniCS are also transforming education. “The great thing about using FEniCS in education is that it allows students to focus on the interesting aspects of their problem, rather than the low-level details of writing a computer programme that solves their problem”, explains Jack. “We can put together three complete solvers in eight hours of teaching time. Without a tool like FEniCS, this would probably take weeks.”

This accessibility also makes it easier for researchers to share ideas, reproduce results and build on one another’s work.

Preparing for the next generation of computing

Looking ahead, the team is working to adapt FEniCS to computer systems designed for artificial intelligence.

At the same time, the project reflects a broader challenge for open-source science: ensuring that rapid contributions, increasingly supported by AI tools, can be reviewed and maintained by a strong community of experienced developers.

3 questions to the researchers

Jack: “The prize means a lot to me because it is not just recognition of a piece of software, but also of a modern approach to doing mathematics; collaborative, open and focused on bringing state-of-the-art fundamental research contributions to as wide an audience as possible. That collaborative and open spirit has shaped how I approach my own work: trying to make research not only rigorous and innovative, but also accessible, reusable, and useful to others.”

Michal: “It is a nice appreciation of the effort and work one puts into developing open-source software like FEniCS.

The prize is named after a brilliant Hungarian mathematician Cornelius Lánczos, who worked on numerical analysis. His works were very applied, and I like to believe that he would have developed an open-source software himself, had he lived in our age.”

Jack: “Projects like FEniCS only survive and thrive when individual effort is matched by sustained support from a wider community, so the prize is primarily a recognition of the many users and developers who have contributed over the past 20 years. I am also grateful to the Department of Engineering and the wider University for providing an environment in which this kind of open, collaborative work can flourish.”

Michal: “The Lánczos prize is awarded based on criteria that strongly value impact of the software and sustained activity in development and maintenance. I think it is my decade-long involvement in the project that plays a role.”

Jack: “On the technical side, I am involved with the overall architecture and design of the code. Creating roadmaps for where we would like to go in the future, making high-level technical decisions, helping develop new features, and reviewing other contributor’s code for quality.

I am also involved in ‘community building’ activities, like helping run the annual conference – this year at the University of Chicago in Paris – and mentoring Google Summer of Code students, which is how I first met Michal.”

Michal: “I started using FEniCS for my bachelor thesis, back in 2014. I liked the project and became more involved in 2017, where I contributed functionality for input/output of simulation results as part of Google Summer of Code project.

In the early years, I was also active in community support, answering users’ questions on various online platforms. This is a very strong aspect of the community around open-source software, like FEniCS, and something that users of commercial software must pay a considerable amount of money for. During my PhD at the ��Vlog, I contributed mainly to the code, particularly during a major clean-up of the existing code, when many early design decisions had to be revisited.”