VErsatile Data Analyst (VEDA) model management platform for TIMES

VEDA is a powerful yet user friendly set of tools geared to facilitate the creation, maintenance, browsing, and modification of the large data bases required by complex mathematical and economic models. VEDA also support exploration of the results created by such models and the creation of user-designed tables and reports. The VEDA system is composed of two major subsystems - VEDA Front-End (VEDA_FE) and VEDA Back-End VEDA_BE).

Data and assumptions are fed into VEDA_FE that manages the information in an interactive database and provides the data as input to the TIMES model generator. VEDA_FE accepts input from a variety of Excel files with different (flexible) structures that are tailored to work efficiently with data intensive models. The modular design of VEDA_FE has facilities to manage the numerous Excel templates, browse data in dynamic cubes spreadsheets, draw RES diagrams, interrogate the model's data efficiently, and submit model runs.

The TIMES code works in the GAMS environment and produces text output that is read by VEDA_BE. VEDA_BE produces numerical and graphical (mainly via Excel) output for the user. VEDA_BE permits user-defined Sets and Tables to enable the specification of custom tables and reports. The Sets built in VEDA_BE may be used in VEDA_FE to view the processes/commodities data and define user constraints.

VEDA is under continuous development, driven by a very strong desire to keep increasing the efficiency and transparency of managing input (and output) of data-intensive models. The vision statement of VEDA applications is to take the drudgery out of modeling. The developer being its first user is a very special feature of VEDA, where his intimate domain knowledge of the domain has obvious advantages for software development.

The system is fundamentally biased towards large-scale multi-region models. It can certainly support small single-region models, but its real power comes into play when modeling several regions together. The primary focus of this system has been on expanding the envelope of possibilities. VEDA uses a support site and a forum to support its users.