African Leadership University

ALU Names Mathematician and Technologist Conrad Wolfram to the Global Advisory Council

ALU is proud to welcome Conrad Wolfram, physicist, mathematician and technologist to the Global Advisory Council. Wolfram is the Strategic Director and European co-founder/CEO of the Wolfram Group of Companies. Described as the place where “Computation meets Knowledge” and the “The Math Company”, the Wolfram Group specializes in pushing boundaries at the intersection of computation, maths, and knowledge, including making Mathematical software, the Wolfram|Alpha knowledge engine (powering knowledge answers for Apple’s Siri), the Computable Document Format (CDF) standard and Wolfram Language.

Wolfram is also the world’s leading advocate for a fundamental shift of maths education to be computer-based, arguing that this is the only way to solve the global maths education crisis. His widely acknowledged 2010 TED talk laid out the rationale and roadmap for this rethink and the same year he founded computerbasedmath.org (CBM) to drive implementation of the change. The movement is now a worldwide force in re-engineering the STEM curriculum and in February 2013 it was announced that Estonia would be the first partner.

“It’s not often you find organisations fundamentally rethinking major societal building blocks like university education or maths, rarer still, that they join forces. Yet that’s what the partnership between ALU and Computer-Based Maths (CBM) means: reconceptualised STEM as a building block for ALU’s new-world subjects. Exciting to be transforming education, not just talking about what could be transformed,” says Wolfram about his appointment and CBM’s partnership with ALU.

Wolfram regularly appears in the media and as a keynote speaker on subjects ranging from the future of the web to 21st century education. He holds degrees in natural sciences and maths from University of Cambridge.

ALU is honoured to welcome Wolfram to the Global Advisory Council. We are confident that his experience in education and technology will push us towards our goal of developing the next generation of African leaders.