Conrad Wolfram

Conrad Wolfram (born 10 June 1970) is a British technologist and businessman known for his work in information technology and mathematics education reform. In June 2020, Wolfram released his first book, ''The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age''.

Education and early life

Born in Oxford, England, in 1970, Wolfram was educated at Dragon School and Eton College where he learned to program on a BBC Micro. He was an undergraduate student at Pembroke College, Cambridge where he studied the Natural Sciences tripos graduating with a Master of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge.

Career

Wolfram has been a proponent of Computer-Based Math—a reform of mathematics education to "rebuild the curriculum assuming computers exist."
and is the founder of computerbasedmath.org.

He argues, "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." And that "School mathematics is very disconnected from mathematics used to solve problems in the real world". In an interview with the Guardian he described the replacement of hand calculation by computer use as "democratising expertise". He argues that "A good guide to how and what you should do with a computer in the classroom is what you'd do with it outside. As much as possible, use real-world tools in the classroom in an open-ended way not special education-only closed-ended approaches."

In 2009, he spoke about education reform at the TEDx Conference at the EU Parliament. and again at TED Global 2010 where he argued that "Maths should be more practical and more conceptual, but less mechanical," and that "Calculating is the machinery of math - a means to an end."

In August 2012, he was a member of the judging panel at the Festival of Code, the culmination of Young Rewired State 2012. Wolfram is also part of Flooved advisory board.

On 10 June 2020, Wolfram released his first book, ''The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age''. The book summarises Wolfram's thoughts on the current state of mathematics education and sets out a vision for a new core subject based on computational thinking.

Wolfram research

Wolfram co-founded Wolfram Research Europe Ltd. in 1991 and remains its CEO. In 1996, he additionally became Strategic and International Director 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 Stephen Wolfram, the maker of Mathematica software and the Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine.

Wolfram has led the effort to move the use of Mathematica from pure computation system to development and deployment engine, instigating technology such as the Mathematica Player family and web Mathematica and by pushing greater automation within the system.

He has also led the focus on interactive publishing technology with the stated aim of "making new applications as everyday as new documents" claiming that "If a picture is worth a thousand words, an interactive document is worth a thousand pictures." These technologies converged to form the Computable Document Format which Wolfram says can "transfer knowledge in a much higher-bandwidth way".Conrad Wolfram: computation will release data overload
Wired 28 June 2012

Personal life

Wolfram's father Hugo Wolfram was a textile manufacturer and novelist (''Into a Neutral Country'') and his mother Sybil Wolfram was a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford. He is the younger brother of Stephen Wolfram. Wolfram is married to primary care ophthalmology consultant Stella Hornby and has a daughter, Sophia Wolfram.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfram, Conrad
1970 births
Living people
People from Oxford
People educated at The Dragon School
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Businesspeople in information technology
English businesspeople
English Jews
People associated with King's College London
Wolfram Research people
Mathematics education