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Education & Academic

Bringing Wolfram Programming Lab into the Classroom

Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts on experiencing Wolfram Programming Lab. In this series, my colleague and I will share our thoughts on using Wolfram Programming Lab as a tool to develop a computational thinking mindset in students. Modern industry has recognized a serious lack of problem solving and critical thinking in recent graduates. In a world going digital, there is an ever-increasing demand for a curriculum that is current and equips students with skills they need to succeed outside the classroom. Adding a computational thinking approach in the classroom addresses these issues. With Wolfram Programming Lab, injecting computational thinking activities to support the curriculum has never been easier. In fact, with the tools and methods we are going to describe in this series, it is possible to do this across a wide range of subjects, not just math and computer science. Wolfram Programming Lab is an immersive programming environment that is also fun! You can run Programming Lab through a web browser as well as on desktop systems. It is compatible on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Though Wolfram Programming Lab officially released earlier this year, the education folks here at Wolfram have been using it for a while now. Apart from constantly adding and tweaking content, we have been very busy conducting workshops in schools and libraries in Champaign-Urbana and nearby cities. Today I'll discuss experiences from two workshops that I led using Wolfram Programming Lab.
Ishwarya Vardhani, Education Partnerships Manager, Partnerships
Computation & Analysis

What Are the Odds?

"What are the odds?" This phrase is often tossed around to point out seemingly coincidental occurrences, and it's normally intended as a rhetorical question. Most people won't even wager a guess; they know that the implied answer is usually "very slim." However, I always find myself fascinated by this question. I like to think about the events leading up to a situation and what sorts of unseen mechanisms might be at work. I interpret the question as a challenge, an exciting topic worthy of discussion. In some cases the odds may seem incalculable---and I'll admit it's not always easy. However, a quick investigation of the surrounding mathematics can give you a lot of insight. Hopefully after reading this post, you'll have a better answer the next time someone asks, "What are the odds?"
Brian Wood, Technical Communications & Outreach Manager
Computation & Analysis

A Mathematical Snowstorm, or How I Survived a Blizzard of Koch-like Snowflakes

When I hear about something like January's United States blizzard, I remember the day I was hit by the discovery of an infinitely large family of Koch-like snowflakes. The Koch snowflake (shown below) is a popular mathematical curve and one of the earliest fractal curves to have been described. It's easy to understand because you can construct it by starting with a regular hexagon, removing the inner third of each side, building an equilateral triangle at the location where the side was removed, and then repeating the process indefinitely: If you isolate the hexagon's lower side in the process above you'll get the Koch curve, described in a 1904 paper by Helge von Koch (1870--1924). It has a long history that goes back way before the age of computer graphics. See, for example, this handmade drawing by the French mathematician Paul Lévy (1886--1971):
Bernat Espigulé-Pons, OSW Operations
Announcements & Events

Launching the Wolfram Open Cloud: Open Access to the Wolfram Language

Note added 07/31/20: Some information regarding Wolfram Cloud products described in this post may be outdated. Please visit https://www.wolfram.com/cloud to learn more. Six and a half years ago we put Wolfram|Alpha and the sophisticated computational knowledge it delivers out free on the web for anyone in the world to use. Now we’re launching the Wolfram […]

Stephen Wolfram
Education & Academic

Announcing Wolfram Programming Lab

I’m excited today to be able to announce the launch of Wolfram Programming Lab—an environment for anyone to learn programming and computational thinking through the Wolfram Language. You can run Wolfram Programming Lab through a web browser, as well as natively on desktop systems (Mac, Windows, Linux).

Stephen Wolfram
Education & Academic

New Wolfram Technologies Books Reach a Global Audience

As this new year begins and the books keep rolling in, we are happy to share with you an exciting new selection of texts featuring Wolfram technologies. If you're looking for a New Year's resolution for 2016, why not consider learning how to use Mathematica or the Wolfram Language? In this post are several books for beginners in English, German, and Japanese, as well as more advanced books for those who are looking to sharpen their skills.
Jenna Giuffrida, Content Administrator, Technical Communications and Strategy Group
Education & Academic

New in the Wolfram Language: Symbolic PDEs

Partial differential equations (PDEs) play a vital role in mathematics and its applications. They can be used to model real-world phenomena such as the vibrations of a stretched string, the flow of heat in a bar, or the change in values of financial options. My aim in writing this post is to give you a brief glimpse into the fascinating world of PDEs using the improvements for boundary value problems in DSolve and the new DEigensystem function in Version 10.3 of the Wolfram Language. The history of PDEs goes back to the works of famous eighteenth-century mathematicians such as Euler, d'Alembert, and Laplace, but the development of this field has continued unabated during the last three centuries. I have, therefore, chosen examples of both classical as well as modern PDEs in order to give you a taste of this vast and beautiful subject.
Devendra Kapadia, Manager of Calculus and Algebra, Algorithms R&D
Computation & Analysis

Wolfram Community Highlights: Medicine, Drones, KenKen, and More!

With some impressive new features, new forums, and many new members, Wolfram Community has had a great year. As we approach the end of 2015, we wanted to share a few highlights from the last few months' excellent posts on the Wolfram Community site.

Drones

Interested in drones? Check out these posts. Connecting ROS to the Wolfram Language, Or Controlling a Parrot ArDrone 2.0 from Mathematica, by Loris Gliner, a student in aeronautical engineering. Loris Gliner used his time in the Wolfram mentorship program to work out how to connect the Wolfram Language to the Linux Robot Operating System. He includes code examples and a video showing the flight of a Parrot ArDrone 2.0 controlled via the Wolfram Language.
Kathryn Cramer, Technical Communications and Strategy Group
Education & Academic

I Wrote a Book—To Teach the Wolfram Language

An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language is available in print, free on the web, etc. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to write another book. My last book—A New Kind of Science—took me more than a decade of intensely focused work, and is the largest personal project I’ve ever done. But a […]

Stephen Wolfram
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