- Conrad Wolfram
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Conrad Wolfram 
Conrad Wolfram in transmediale 10 talking about Wolfram Alpha.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.
Contents
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.
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]
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.
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.
External links
Categories:- 1970 births
- Living people
- People from Oxford
- Old Dragons
- Old Etonians
- Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
- Businesspeople in information technology
- English businesspeople
- People associated with King's College London
- Wolfram Research
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