Editing Hal Abelson (section)

===Computing tools===
Abelson and Sussman also cooperate in codirecting the MIT Project on Mathematics and Computation, a project of the [[MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory]] (CSAIL), formerly a joint project of the [[MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory]] (AI Lab) and [[MIT Laboratory for Computer Science]] (LCS), CSAIL's components. The goal of the project is to create better computational tools for scientists and engineers. But even with powerful numerical computers, exploring complex physical systems still requires substantial human effort and human judgement to prepare simulations and to interpret numerical results.<ref name=off/>

Together with their students, Abelson and Sussman are combining methods from [[numerical computation]], [[symbolic algebra]], and [[Heuristic (computer science)|heuristic]] programming to develop programs that not only perform massive numerical computations, but that also interpret these computations and ''discuss'' the results in qualitative terms. Programs such as these could form the basis for intelligent scientific instruments that monitor physical systems based upon high-level behavioral descriptions. More generally, they could lead to a new generation of computational tools that can autonomously explore complex physical systems, and which will play an important part in the future practice of science and engineering. At the same time, these programs incorporate computational formulations of scientific knowledge that can form the foundations of better ways to teach science and engineering.<ref name=off>{{Official URL}}</ref>