Conrad Wolfram
Conrad Wolfram (born June 10, 1970 in Oxford , England ) is a British mathematician , software developer and entrepreneur . He has been working for Wolfram Research , a company founded and run by his brother in 1987, since 1996 as Strategic and International Director and as Managing Director of the subsidiary he co-founded in Great Britain .
He played a key role in the development of the mathematical and scientific program package Mathematica and is considered to be the inventor of the Wolfram Alpha search engine . In addition, he has been campaigning for the “Computer-Based Math” project for a number of years, with which he calls for the abandonment of the previous form of mathematics teaching at schools and universities and the introduction of teaching that is centrally oriented towards programming .
Live and act
Conrad's father Hugo Wolfram was a textile manufacturer and novelist. His mother, Sybil, was a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford . His older brother is Stephen Wolfram .
Conrad Wolfram first attended Dragon School and Eton College and graduated from Pembroke College Cambridge with a master's degree in science and mathematics . He took his first steps in programming on a BBC Micro . He then worked with his brother Stephen on “Mathematica”, a universal computer tool kit for mathematical models that soon became a standard tool for scientists and mathematicians. When the American company Wolfram Research Inc. founded by Stephen expanded to Europe in 1991 , Conrad Wolfram became co-founder of Wolfram Research Europe Ltd. in Great Britain and took over responsibility as its managing director.
His main task from 2005 onwards was the development of the Wolfram Alpha search and knowledge engine , whose publicly accessible web portal went live in 2009. As part of this responsibility or as Strategic and International Director at Wolfram Research, the subsidiary Wolfram Research Asia Ltd. in Japan and Wolfram Research South America in Peru.
Conrad Wolfram relied on the expansion of Mathematica early on , beyond the functions of a computer algebra system , to a development and deployment engine, thereby stimulating greater automation within the system and the expanded technology of the “Mathematica Media Player” family and “webMathematica” " on. He also worked intensively on interactive publications. He presented a corresponding technology in 2011 as Computable Document Format or CDF . It is a declared goal that new application programs for interactive content will soon become just as commonplace and familiar as current word processing or document viewing programs for the digital formats used up to now.
Reform of math teaching
Conrad Wolfram is considered to be the most prominent proponent and spokesman for “Computer-Based Math”, an initiative to redesign mathematics teaching with greater involvement of information technology. In 2010 he founded the project website “computerbasedmath.org” and publicly advocates a rethinking of the authorities and institutions responsible for education. In 2009 he already appeared as a speaker at the TEDx conference in the European Parliament. At the TED Global 2010 conference he again advocated that mathematics should be more practical and conceptual, but less mechanical, and that computer-aided computation was merely the means to an end of mathematics. The British magazine The Observer led him in 2012 in eleventh place on a list of radicals published by it, the "Britain's 50 New Radicals". In February 2013, the movement, which is now active worldwide, announced that Estonia would be the first partner to introduce a completely redesigned STEM curriculum, i.e. that it would introduce an examination in the MINT subjects across the country based on the suggestions of Computer-Based Math.
In August 2012 he was a jury member at the Festival of Code, organized by the non-profit organization Young Rewired State 2012. Conrad Wolfram is also a member of the IT advisory board of King's College in London and sits on the technical advisory board of the online teaching platform Flooved.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kai Biermann: Wolfram Alpha of all things . In: Zeit Online , March 1, 2010, accessed March 4, 2016
- ↑ Hugo Wolfram , overview of works at goodreads.com , accessed on March 4, 2016
- ^ The BBC Microcomputer and me, 30 years down the line . In: "BBC News" from December 1, 2011.
- ↑ a b Konrad Lischka: New CDF document format: Away with the boring paper Internet! . In: Der Spiegel , July 21, 2011, accessed March 4, 2016
- ↑ Wolfram Alpha goes live , interview with Conrad Wolfram. In: Channel 4 News , May 15, 2009, accessed March 4, 2016
- ^ Closing Gap Between Modern Life and Math Curriculum . In: New York Times, February 10, 2013.
- ↑ About - What is CBM? . From computerbasedmath.org . Retrieved March 4, 2016
- ^ Michael Brooks: The despair of the dissenting government expert . In: New Statesman , June 15, 2012.
- ↑ Conrad Wolfram: I calculate therefore I am TedX Brussels, YouTube, 2009.
- ↑ 2009 - TEDxBrussels . From: Tedxbrussels.eu , accessed on February 5, 2016.
- ↑ Duncan Geere: Conrad Wolfram wants to reboot the maths curriculum . ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Wired of July 19, 2010
- ↑ Britain's 40 New Radicals 2012 In: "Nesta", accessed March 5, 2016
- ↑ Klint Finley: Math rebels invade Estonia with computerized education . In: Wired , December 2, 2013, accessed March 4, 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wolfram, Conrad |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British technology expert and entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 10, 1970 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oxford |