A neural network shell has a defined interface to an application program. By interfacing with the neural network shell, any application program becomes a neural network application program. The neural network shell contains a set of utility programs that transfers data into and out of a neural network data structure. This set of utility programs allows an application program to define a new neural network model, create a neural network data structure, train a neural network, and run a neural network. Once trained, the neural network data structure can be transported to other computer systems or to application programs written in different computing languages running on similar or different computer systems.