Wolfram Blog Team
Future Directions of Wolfram|Alpha
November 19, 2009
Wolfram Blog Team

Stephen Wolfram highlighted several future directions of Wolfram technologies during his keynote address at the International Mathematica User Conference 2009. Among them were new developments surrounding Wolfram|Alpha.

In the following video, Stephen outlines some of the directions in the works for Wolfram|Alpha and gives a sneak peek at one soon-to-be-released service. (To hear more of Stephen’s keynote, please see part 1 and part 2 of this series.)

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Wolfram Blog Team
Mathematica and Natural Resources Research
November 17, 2009
Wolfram Blog Team

Yu-Feng Lin, a hydrogeologist at the Illinois State Water Survey, is on a mission to tackle a top national research priority using Mathematica. In this video, Lin details why this project could only be done in Mathematica.

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Because of the importance of groundwater recharge and discharge in the hydrological cycle, the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) deems research on them to be of critical priority. However, their rates and patterns are so complex that it takes years of study to estimate them.
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Wolfram Blog Team
The R&D Pipeline for Mathematica
November 12, 2009
Wolfram Blog Team

Stephen Wolfram kicked off the International Mathematica User Conference 2009 with an inside look at what he calls an incredible research and development pipeline for Mathematica.

During last year’s keynote address, Stephen surprised attendees with news about the release of Mathematica 7—just 18 months after Mathematica 6. This year, he said our development pace has become even faster.

The following video clip includes a few examples of what our R&D team has in the pipeline for future versions of Mathematica. (You can see the first part in our series of highlights from Stephen’s keynote here.)

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Wolfram Blog Team
A Remarkable Year Ahead for Mathematica
November 6, 2009
Wolfram Blog Team

Future Mathematica features, new directions for Wolfram|Alpha, and how the two Wolfram technologies will be integrated were highlights of Stephen Wolfram’s keynote address at the International Mathematica User Conference 2009.

Stephen says Wolfram Research will follow up an extremely successful 2009 with a remarkable “breakout year for our company” and the Mathematica community.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing video highlights and transcript excerpts with you from Stephen’s conference keynote.

In the first part of this series, Stephen shares the history and trajectory of Mathematica, including some insight on what he calls the “most dramatic” development for him.
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Elizabeth Shack
Mathematica Manages Financial Risk
November 3, 2009
Elizabeth Shack, Web Operations, Content, and Authoring

Finance professionals have been using Mathematica for years to optimize portfolios, develop and refine analytic risk models, rapidly prototype products and trading strategies, deploy analysis tools over the web, and much more.

Not surprisingly, we’ve seen increased interest in Mathematica’s financial applications stemming from the current economic struggles. Accurate models and analyses are in demand to determine the best way to get the world’s economy back on track and prevent future crises.
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Oleksandr Pavlyk
Mathematica and The American Mathematical Monthly’s “Problems and Solutions” Section
October 28, 2009
Oleksandr Pavlyk, Kernel Technology

The “Problems and Solutions” section of The American Mathematical Monthly journal has always been a source of interesting problems to keep me entertained. Their solutions often require ingenuity. The problems in the October issue were no exception.

I always analyze and explore these problems in Mathematica. Being a kernel developer, I see whether Mathematica can indeed find a solution. This last issue has challenging problems, and it was particularly gratifying to observe that Mathematica could solve them right out of the box. So here are my solutions to three of the paraphrased problems:
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Wolfram Blog Team
More from the International Mathematica User Conference 2009
October 23, 2009
Wolfram Blog Team

There is still lots of excitement at this year’s International Mathematica User Conference. This morning started with a lively talk from Wolfram Research’s Conrad Wolfram and Theodore Gray on the future of publishing. Essentially, they opined that the future will be paper-less and sparked with interactivity. Their goal is to find more ways for Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha to help in that process.

International Mathematica User Conference attendees
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Wolfram Blog Team
First Day of the International Mathematica User Conference 2009
October 22, 2009
Wolfram Blog Team

This year’s International Mathematica User Conference is off to a great start! The day opened with a combined talk by Wolfram Research’s Roger Germundsson and Tom Wickham-Jones discussing Mathematica’s current and future features and its development and deployment tools.

Along with many Wolfram Research developers, Mathematica users from all over the world have been speaking on the myriad ways they explore those same features and technologies in their projects. With so many interesting topics, choosing which talks to attend can be difficult.

Stephen Wolfram Keynote at the International Mathematica User Conference 2009
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Stephen Wolfram
A Big Week for Wolfram|Alpha
October 20, 2009
Stephen Wolfram

There’s a lot going on in the Wolfram|Alpha project these days—and this week there’s a remarkable convergence of events.

Late last week we introduced the Wolfram|Alpha Webservice API, allowing outside developers to call Wolfram|Alpha from their websites or application programs.

Then yesterday we released the first mobile implementation of Wolfram|Alpha, in the form of an iPhone app.

Tomorrow, we’re doing something completely different: Wolfram|Alpha Homework Day—a 14-hour live webcast event for students and educators.

Oh, and starting on Thursday is the International Mathematica User Conference, which will show many advances in the core Mathematica technology on which Wolfram|Alpha is based.
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Wolfram Blog Team
Using Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha in the Classroom
October 19, 2009
Wolfram Blog Team

There are lots of things going on at Wolfram Research these days. October 22–24 is our annual International Mathematica User Conference, and October 21 is the first-ever Wolfram|Alpha Homework Day! Homework Day is a groundbreaking, marathon live interactive web event that brings together students, parents, and educators from across the United States to solve their toughest assignments and explore the power of using Wolfram|Alpha for school, college, and beyond. You can read more about it in the Wolfram|Alpha Blog post.

Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha are great resources for both teachers and students. Using the two together is a good way to explore topics in more depth. This video shows a few examples of how you can utilize Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha in your own classroom.
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