Conrad Wolfram
| Conrad Wolfram | |
|---|---|
 Conrad Wolfram in transmediale 10 talking about Wolfram Alpha. |
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| Born | June 10, 1970 |
| Residence | United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Cambridge University |
| Occupation | Strategic and International Director, Wolfram Research |
Conrad Wolfram (born 1970) is a British technologist and businessman known for his work in information technology and its application.
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Biography [edit]
Wolfram's father Hugo was a textile manufacturer and novelist (Into a Neutral Country) and his mother Sybil was a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford. He has an older brother, Stephen.[1]
Born in Oxford, England, in 1970, Wolfram was educated at Dragon School, Eton College, Pembroke College, Cambridge University, UK[2] from which he holds an MA degree in Natural Sciences and Mathematics. He learned to program on a BBC Micro.[3]
Mathematics education reform [edit]
Wolfram has been a prominent proponent of 'Computer-Based Math'- a reform of mathematics education to make greater use of information technology. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] and is the founder of computerbasedmath.org.[13][14]
The UK's Channel 4 News quotes him saying "There are a few cases where it is important to do calculations by hand, but these are small fractions of cases. The rest of the time you should assume that students should use a computer just like everyone does in the real world.".[15] In an interview with the Guardian he described the replacement of hand calculation by computer use as "democratising expertise".[16]
In 2009, he spoke about education reform at the TEDx Conference at the EU Parliament.[17][18] and again at TED Global 2010 where he argued that "Maths should be more practical and more conceptual, but less mechanical,"[19] and that "Calculating is the machinery of math - a means to an end."
He serves on the Computer science committee Advisory Board at King's College London.[20]
In 2012, The Observer placed him at number 11 in its list of Britains 50 New Radicals.[21][22]
In August 2012, he was a member of the judging panel at the Festival of Code, the culmination of Young Rewired State 2012.
Work [edit]
Conrad Wolfram founded Wolfram Research Europe Ltd.[23] in 1991 and remains its managing director.[24] In 1996, he additionally became Strategic and International Director[25] of Wolfram Research, Inc., making him also responsible for Wolfram Research Asia Ltd, and communications such as the wolfram.com website.
Wolfram Research was founded by his brother[26] Stephen Wolfram, the maker of Mathematica software and the Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine.[27]
Conrad Wolfram has led the effort to move the use of Mathematica from pure computation system to development and deployment engine,[28][29] instigating technology such as the Mathematica Player family and web Mathematica and by pushing greater automation within the system.[30]
He has also lead the focus on interactive publishing technology[31] with the stated aim of "making new applications as everyday as new documents"[32] claiming that "If a picture is worth a thousand words, an interactive document is worth a thousand pictures."[33] These technologies converged to form the Computable Document Format[34] which Wolfram says can "transfer knowledge in a much higher-bandwidth way"[35]
Wolfram was on the founding committee of the IMS Conferences.[clarification needed][citation needed]
References [edit]
- ^ "Stephen Wolfram". nndb.com. Retrieved 2009-05-11.
- ^ giving away software in push into China, The News Gazette, 9 March 2008.
- ^ The BBC Microcomputer and me, 30 years down the line BBC News, 1 Dec 2011
- ^ Conrad Wolfram at Learning Without Frontiers Wired 26 Jan 2012
- ^ Making Maths Beautiful Learning Without Frontiers
- ^ Conrad Wolfram on the Computational Knowledge Economy HPC Wire, 12 Jan 2012
- ^ We need to base maths lessons on computers, The Daily Telegraph, December 3, 2009.
- ^ Changing the world with technical computing, Scientific Computing World, August 2004.
- ^ Report of the invitation MEI seminars, MEI, UK
- ^ Estonian Schools to Teach Computer-Based Math Wall Street Journal, 11 Feb 2013
- ^ Computers do it better, Times Higher Education Supplement, 30 March 2012
- ^ Closing the gap between modern life and the math curriculum New York Times, 10 Feb 2013
- ^ computerbasedmath.org.
- ^ The despair of the dissenting government expert The New Statesman
- ^ Introducing the 'sat-nav' maths exam, Channel 4 News, Channel 4, UK
- ^ WolframAlpha Online Search Engine Calculations, The Guardian, 2 September 2009.
- ^ I calculate therefore I am, Conrad Wolfram, TedX Brussels, YouTube, 2009.
- ^ "Speakers at TEDxBurssels 2009". Tedxbrussels.eu. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
- ^ Conrad Wolfram wants to reboot the maths curriculum, Wired Magazine, 19 July 2010.
- ^ Advisory board,[dead link] King's College London, UK.
- ^ Britains 40 New Radicals The Observer
- ^ Britains 50 New Radicals Nesta
- ^ Wolfram Alpha goes live, Channel 4 News, Channel 4, UK.
- ^ Knowles, Jamillah (2009-09-15). "Guatemala, Wolfram Alpha, Acquine and news". Radio 5, BBC, UK. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
- ^ A computational knowledge engine for factual queries, The Hindu, India, 25 May 2009.
- ^ Can Wolfram Take on Google?, The Daily Telegraph, UK.
- ^ Wolfram promises new way to probe the web, The Independent, UK.
- ^ Wolfram Releases Mathematica Player 7, Inside HPC, 10 December 2008.
- ^ Wolfram Releases Mathematic Player Pro 7, Dr Dobbs Journal.
- ^ webMathematica Japanese Edition: Unique Product Brings Computation to the Web, Mathematica Journal, volume 8, issue 4.
- ^ Making Science Leap From the Page The New York Times, 17 Dec 2011
- ^ The day that documentes and applications merged, Wolfram Research.
- ^ Interactive deployment, Wolfram Research.
- ^ Wolfram Alpha Creator plans to delete the PDF The Telegraph (UK)
- ^ Conrad Wolfram: computation will release data overload Wired 28 June 2012
External links [edit]
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