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Leading Edge

New in the Wolfram Language: GrammarRules

The Wolfram Language provides tools for programmatic handling of free-form input. For example, Interpreter, which was introduced in Version 10.0, converts snippets of text into computable Wolfram Language expressions. In smart form fields, this functionality can automatically translate input like "forty-two" into a Wolfram Language expression like "42." But what does it take to perform more complicated operations or customize responses and actions? For that you need a grammar. The grammar indicates the structure that should be matched and the action that should be taken using information extracted from the match. A grammar gives you natural language control over your computer so that you can process language snippets to yield functions that perform commands. For example, telling your computer to "open a website" requires mapping snippets like "open" and "a website" to the Open command and the URL of a website.
Jeremy Michelson, Manager of Data and Semantics Engineering
Products

Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) Import in Wolfram SystemModeler

Explore the contents of this article with a free Wolfram SystemModeler trial. An important emerging standard has been rapidly adopted by industry: the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI). It's an independent standard allowing model exchange between different tools. We introduced FMI export with Version 4.0 of SystemModeler. Exporting your model as a Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU) serves many purposes. First and foremost, it can be used in other tools and programming languages. It also protects your intellectual property by compiling the model code to a binary, which is useful when exchanging models with customers and collaborators. Now with Version 4.1 of SystemModeler, we are happy to announce that we also support FMI import.
Johan Rhodin, Kernel Developer, Mathematica Algorithm R&D Henrik Tidefelt, Software Engineer, SystemModeler
Education & Academic

Solar Eclipses from Past to Future, Earth to Jupiter

You may have heard that on March 20 there was a solar eclipse. Depending on where you are geographically, a solar eclipse may or may not be visible. If it is visible, local media make a small hype of the event, telling people how and when to observe the event, what the weather conditions will be, and other relevant details. If the eclipse is not visible in your area, there is a high chance it will draw very little attention. But people on Wolfram Community come from all around the world, and all---novices and experienced users and developers---take part in these conversations. And it is a pleasure to witness how knowledge of the subject and of Wolfram technologies and data from different parts of the world are shared.
Vitaliy Kaurov, Director of Community Engagement
Education & Academic

Join the Wolfram Student Ambassador Program!

Are you a student and a technology junkie? If so, keep reading! The Wolfram Student Ambassador Program allows exemplary students the opportunity to further their tech career by acting as the face of Wolfram at their universities (plus earn some great swag, opportunities, and prizes). For this pilot program, we are searching for one representative each from colleges and universities all around North America. We are looking for the top tier of technical talent, the peak of perfection, the coolest of coders. The ideal candidate will have 10—14 hours to dedicate to the program each month. They are already a leader on campus, charismatic and loved by all, and with an undying passion for Wolfram technologies.
Danielle Mayer, Director of Outreach and Communications
Leading Edge

New in the Wolfram Language: PlotThemes for Gauges

The first gauge I remember was a blue wrist watch I received from my parents as a child. Their hope was probably to correct my tardiness, but it proved valuable for more important tasks such as timing bicycle races. Today digital gauges help us analyze a variety of data on smart phones and laptops. Battery level, signal strength, network speed, and temperature are some of the common data elements constantly monitored.
Tim Shedelbower, Visualization Developer, Algorithms R&D
Announcements & Events

Reliability Analysis in SystemModeler 4.1

Explore the contents of this article with a free Wolfram SystemModeler trial. Today we are proud to announce the release of Wolfram SystemModeler 4.1. We will present some of the news in blog posts, beginning with this one, in which we will highlight the new reliability functionality. We will illustrate this with an example, and you can try it out by downloading a trial version of SystemModeler and this example model, and a trial of the Wolfram Hydraulic library. Most people probably have experiences with things they bought and liked, but that then suddenly failed for some reason. During the last few years we have both experienced this problem, including a complete engine breakdown in Johan's car (the engine had to be replaced), and Jan's receiver, which suddenly went completely silent (the receiver had to be sent in for repair and have its network chip replaced). In both cases it caused problems for the customers (us) as well as for the producer. These are just a couple of examples, and we're sure you have your own.
Jan Brugård, CEO, Wolfram MathCore Johan Rhodin, Kernel Developer, Mathematica Algorithm R&D
Computation & Analysis

A Rat Race, or a Great Way to Start the Day

Recently, during a particularly severe patch of winter weather and much too much shoveling of snow off my driveway, I decided, with help from the Wolfram Language, to bring back memories of fairer weather by looking at commuting to work on a bicycle. This past year, I finally succumbed to the increasingly common practice of recording personal activity data. Over the last few years, I’d noted that my rides had become shorter and easier as the season progressed, so I was mildly interested in verifying this improvement in personal fitness. Using nothing more than a smart phone and a suitable application, I recorded 27 rides between home and work, and then used the Wolfram Language to read, analyze, and visualize the results. Here is a Google Earth image showing my morning bike route covering a distance of a little under 11 miles, running from east to west.
Mariusz Jankowski, Algorithms R&D
Leading Edge

New in the Wolfram Language: WikipediaData

Since the inception of Wolfram|Alpha, Wikipedia has held a special place in its development pipeline. We usually use it not as a primary source for data, but rather as an essential resource for improving our natural language understanding, particularly for mining the common and colloquial ways people refer to entities and concepts in various domains. We've developed a lot of internal tools to help us analyze and extract information from Wikipedia over the years, but now we've also added a Wikipedia "integrated service" to the latest version of the Wolfram Language---making it incredibly easy for anyone to incorporate Wiki content into Wolfram Language workflows.
C. Alan Joyce, Director, Content Development
Education & Academic

Wolfram Summer Schools and Summer Camps

Imagine people from all around the world, young and old, neuroscientists and quantum physicists, Arduino hackers and music composers, gathered with Stephen Wolfram and his team in one place to discover new science and technology. That’s the Wolfram Science Summer School, which for the last decade or so has been my favorite time of the year. When it was founded in 2003, the school’s focus was on Stephen Wolfram’s A New Kind of Science, but its scope has expanded to include what is now called Wolfram Science. Stephen Wolfram explained in a blog post last year how this school is like entrepreneurship science. It’s not about doing the same old stuff, as you might get in a typical academic environment.
Todd Rowland, Academic Director, Wolfram Science and Innovation Initiatives
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