We have several news items and upcoming events to share with the OpenSim community:

Help us test OpenSim 3.0 Beta
We have started beta testing of the next release of OpenSim, version 3.0. The release will include live model editing in the GUI, improved muscle models, scripting in the GUI and through Matlab, among many other features. Be a beta tester to get an early look and help us test and improve the software. Sign up here.

Learn more about past OpenSim workshops and courses 
The summer has been filled with several workshops for beginning to advanced OpenSim users. You can find out more about each of these events on our website:
OpenSim Developer's Week, July 2012
OpenSim Advanced User Workshop, August 2012
Instructional Course at the Annual Meeting of the AACPDM, September 2012
Stay tuned for future workshops and courses.

Stay tuned for upcoming OpenSim webinars and watch past recordings
Our next OpenSim webinar will introduce OpenSim 3.0. We also have several outside speakers lined up for the fall, including Ray Browning and Zach Lerner from Colorado State University and B.J. Fregly and Carolynn Patten from the University of Florida. More details are coming soon and will be posted on the webinar page. If you missed Matt Millard's recent webinar on the new muscle models coming with OpenSim 3.0, you can find a recording online.

Participate in the Grand Challenge to Predict Knee Loads
Our colleagues at the University of Florida, the Scripps Clinic, and the University of Auckland just posted data for the Fourth Grand Challenge Competition to Predict In Vivo Knee Loads. The goal of the challenge is to predict knee joint loads that match experimental data from instrumented knee replacements. Find out more on their recent Biomch-L post or their Simtk project.

Help us secure continued funding for Simtk.org
The Simbios team is writing a proposal to renew NIH support for the Simtk.org website, which supports OpenSim and 600+ other biocomputational projects. We would be grateful if you could send a signed letter of support to simbiosfeedback@stanford.edu by September 24th. A template is attached to this email.

We are also very sorry for all of the spam you may have received in response to the earlier email requesting letters of support. The mailing list used to send the message was configured to reject messages from anyone but the list administrator, but something broke on the mail server side. We are investigating the problem so we can prevent anything similar from happening in the future.

Best wishes,
Jen

--
Jennifer Hicks, Ph.D.
Associate Director | NCSRR
R&D Manager | OpenSim 
Stanford University
650-498-4403 | jenhicks@stanford.edu