VISQ (Portuguese acronym for "Variables that Interact Semi-Quantitatively") is a scientific-educational

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...

developed using Carnegie-Mellon's cT, in the year of 1993 by M. Thielo (as a

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

undergrad at the time), based on Jon Ogborn ideas for semi-quantitative modeling of

dynamical systems In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a function describes the time dependence of a point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock pendulum, the flow of water in a ...

, for both

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few o ...

and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

systems (in 2012 the author published a new, Windows compatible version). Awarded by the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in 1994, the system is based on the theory of continuous

neural networks A neural network is a network or circuit of biological neurons, or, in a modern sense, an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus, a neural network is either a biological neural network, made up of biological ...

, and have been used in many research projects since then, mainly in Master and Doctoral Dissertations in the area of

environmental education Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating discip ...

. An introduction to VISQ (in Portuguese) can be found at the university site, and the

can be freely downloaded from the author's siteDownloading VISQ for Windows
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References

External links

Download MS-DOS Version of VISQ

Reference manual (English)

Representing Semiquantitative Variables with VISQ (in Portuguese)

Journal Article containing a case study with the program, published in the International Journal of Computer Assisted Learning

Animated example of a semiquantitative model running in VISQ. Science education Educational software {{science-software-stub