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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[edit] Work
Conrad Wolfram founded Wolfram Research Europe Ltd.[1] in 1991 and remains its managing director.[2] In 1996 he additionally became Strategic and International Director[3] 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[4] Stephen Wolfram, the maker of Mathematica software and the Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine.[5]
Conrad Wolfram has led the effort to move the use of Mathematica from pure computation system to development and deployment engine,[6][7] instigating technology such as the Mathematica Player family and web Mathematica and by pushing greater automation within the system.[8] He has also lead the focus on interactive publishing technology with the stated aim of "making new applications as everyday as new documents"[9] claiming that "If a picture is worth a thousand words, an interactive document is worth a thousand pictures."[10] These technologies converged to form the Computable Document Format[11]
Wolfram was on the founding committee of the IMS conferences.
[edit] Math Education Reform
Wolfram has been a prominent proponent of the reform of math education by greater use of information technology.[12][13][14] and is the founder of computerbasedmath.org. 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 Kings College London.[20]
[edit] Biography
Born in Oxford, England, in 1970, Wolfram was educated at Dragon School, Eton College, Pembroke College, Cambridge University, UK[21] from which he holds an MA in Natural Sciences and Maths.
[edit] References
- ^ Wolfram Alpha goes live, Channel 4 news.
- ^ 09:39am (2009-09-15). "BBC Radio 5, UK". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/podsandblogs/2009/05/guatemala_wolfram_alpha_acquin.shtml. 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.
- ^ The day that documentes and applications merged, Wolfram Research.
- ^ Interactive deployment, Wolfram Research.
- ^ Wolfram Alpha Createor plans to delete the PDF The Telegraph (UK)
- ^ 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
- ^ Introducing the 'sat-nav' maths exam Channel 4 News, UK
- ^ WolframAlpha Online Search Engine Calculations The Guardian
- ^ I calculate therefore I am. Conrad Wolfram, TedX Brussels 2009
- ^ "Speakers at TEDxBurssels 2009". Tedxbrussels.eu. http://tedxbrussels.eu/site/speakers.html. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
- ^ Conrad Wolfram wants to reboot the maths curriculum, Wired Magazine 19 July 2010.
- ^ Advisory board, Kings College London, UK.
- ^ Wolfram giving away software in push into China, The News Gazette, 9 March 2008.
