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News, Views & Insights

Computation & Analysis

Computational Stippling: Can Machines Do as Well as Humans?

Stippling is a kind of drawing style using only points to mimic lines, edges, and grayscale. The entire drawing consists only of dots on a white background. The density of the points gives the impression of grayscale shading. Back in 1510, stippling was first invented as an engraving technique, and then became popular in many fields because it requires just one color of ink. Here is a photo of a fine example taken from an exhibition of lithography and copperplate art (the Centenary of European Engraving Exhibition held at the Hubei Museum of Art in March 2015; in case you're curious, here is the museum's official page in English).
Silvia Hao, Document & Media Systems
Education & Academic

Celebrate Math Awareness with This Wolfram|Alpha Promo

April and Mathematics Awareness Month will soon be coming to an end, and so will these special offers on Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha. As I mentioned in my last post, this year's Mathematics Awareness Month explores "the Future of Prediction" via mathematics and statistics. Ever since the earliest recognition of mathematics, people have used it to make accurate predictions not only in math but also in related fields.
Hy Nguyen, Public Relations
Education & Academic

Analyzing Shakespeare’s Texts on the 400th Anniversary of His Death

Putting some color in Shakespeare's tragedies with the Wolfram Language

 After four hundred years, Shakespeare's works are still highly present in our culture. He mastered the English language as never before, and he deeply understood the emotions of the human mind. Have you ever explored Shakespeare's texts from the perspective of a data scientist? Wolfram technologies can provide you with new insights into the semantics and statistical analysis of Shakespeare's plays and the social networks of their characters. William Shakespeare (April 26, 1564 (baptized)--April 23, 1616) is considered by many to be the greatest writer of the English language. He wrote 154 sonnets, 38 plays (divided into three main groups: comedy, history, and tragedy), and 4 long narrative poems.
Jofre Espigulé-Pons, Machine Learning
Computation & Analysis

The 26.2 Blog

It’s four months into the new year. Spring is here. Well, so they say. And if the temperatures do not convince you, the influx of the number of runners on our roads definitely should. I have always loved running. Despite the fact that during each mile I complain about various combinations of the weather, the mileage, and my general state of mind, I met up with 37,000 other runners for the Chicago Marathon on October 11, 2015. As it turns out, this single event makes for a great example to explore what the Wolfram Language can do with larger datasets. The data we are using below is available on the Chicago Marathon results website. This marathon is one of the six Abbott World Marathon Majors: the Tokyo, Boston, Virgin Money London, BMW Berlin, Bank of America Chicago, and TCS New York City marathons. If you are looking for things to add to your bucket list, I believe these are great candidates. Given the international appeal, let's have a look at the runners' nationalities and their travel paths. Our GeoGraphics functionality easily enables us to do so. Clearly many people traveled very far to participate:
Eila Stiegler, Quality Analysis Manager, Wolfram|Alpha Quality Analysis
Education & Academic

Newest Wolfram Technologies Books Cover Range of STEM Topics

Authors that choose to incorporate Wolfram technologies into their books are practitioners in a variety of STEM fields. Their work is an invaluable resource of information about the application of Mathematica, the Wolfram Language, and other Wolfram technologies for hobbyists, STEM professionals, and students.
Wolfram Blog Team
Leading Edge

New in the Wolfram Language: GreenFunction and Applications in Electricity, ODEs, and PDEs

Picture of Green's Windmill by Kev747 at the English language Wikipedia. In 1828, an English corn miller named George Green published a paper in which he developed mathematical methods for solving problems in electricity and magnetism. Green had received very little formal education, yet his paper introduced several profound concepts that are now taught in courses on advanced calculus, physics, and engineering. My aim in writing this post is to give a brief biography of this great genius and provide an introduction to GreenFunction, which implements one of his pioneering ideas in Version 10.4 of the Wolfram Language.
Devendra Kapadia, Manager of Calculus and Algebra, Algorithms R&D
Announcements & Events

Ready? Review. Register: The 2016 Wolfram Technology Conference Is on the Way!

Mark your calendars now for the 2016 Wolfram Technology Conference! Join us October 18--21 at Wolfram headquarters in Champaign, Illinois, where we'll be getting things off to an exciting start with a keynote address by Wolfram founder and CEO Stephen Wolfram on Tuesday, October 18 at 5pm. Our conference gives developers and colleagues a rare opportunity for face-to-face discussion of the latest developments and features for cloud computing, interactive deployment, mobile devices, and more. Arrive early for pre-conference training opportunities, and come ready to participate in hands-on workshops, nonstop networking opportunities, and the Wolfram Language One-Liner Competition, just to name a few activities. We are also looking for users to share their own stories and interests! Submit your presentation proposal by July 15 for full consideration. Last year's lineup included everything from political data science to winning hackathon solutions to programming in the Wolfram Cloud... and literally almost everything in between. Review a sampling of the 2015 talks below, or visit our website for more. Commanding the Wolfram Cloud---Todd Gayley
Wolfram Blog Team
Computation & Analysis

Wolfram Community Highlights: LEGO, SCOTUS, Minecraft, and More!

Wolfram Community members continue to amaze us. Take a look at a few of the fun and clever ideas shared by our members in the first part of 2016. How to LEGO-fy Your Plots and 3D Models, by Sander Huisman This marvel by Sander Huisman, a postdoc from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, attracted more than 6,000 views in one day and was trending on Reddit, Hacker News, and other social media channels. Huisman's code iteratively covers layers with bricks of increasingly smaller sizes, alternating in the horizontal x and y directions. Read the full post to see how to turn your own plots, 3D scans, and models into brick-shaped masterpieces.
Emily Suess, Technical Writer, Technical Communications and Strategy Group
Announcements & Events

Pi Day Discounts on Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (3.14) every year to properly recognize the constant pi (π=~3.14159)---the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. At Wolfram, π plays an important part in every one of our products, allowing users to do everything from getting the basic area of a circle to rendering a π symbol filled with the digits of π. On Pi Day last year (aka the Pi Day of the Century), the folks at SXSW got a very special treat from us in the name of π. This year, we decided to bring the celebration to you by offering exclusive discounts on Mathematica. Get 15% off Mathematica Home Edition and 25% or more off Mathematica Student Edition in select territories, including North and South America, Australia, and parts of Asia and Africa. Regardless of where you are, you can still celebrate with us by finding your Pi Day.
Hy Nguyen, Public Relations
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