A conference that aims to help people harness the power of mathematical algorithms at work and at home will take place at the University of Aberdeen next week.
The Maths 4 EveryDay Life Conference will show people how they can use the Wolfram Language – a high-level computer language – to solve problems in their daily lives, whether at work or at home.
Using a variety of illustrative examples, the event will demonstrate how computational thinking and mathematical processes can be used in a wide range of situations, from helping people choose their next film or book, to helping police solve crime.
The conference is aimed at anyone with an interest in computer programming, from absolute beginners to those with a programming background. School pupils are particularly welcome.
Dr Marco Thiel and Dr Bjoern Schelter from the University’s School of Natural and Computing Sciences have organised the week-long conference, which begins on Monday, August 14.
Dr Thiel said: “Mathematics and computational thinking is not just for highly trained experts – we can now use ‘mathe-magical’ techniques to solve our own problems and improve our lives.
“Using the Wolfram Language we can train an artificial ‘brain’ to help you find a movie or a book that you might like, or analyse and interpret data so you can make the right decisions at work.
“This conference will show how the Wolfram Language can help people do this and other really interesting and quirky things, from analysing Shakespeare to using ‘smart devices’ such as a garden sprinkler to detect when an animal enters your garden.
“Ultimately what we are aiming to do is put the power of modern algorithms in people’s hands, and we are welcoming anyone with an interest in programming to come along and have some fun while learning how they can make algorithms work for them.”
Further details on the conference, including registration information, can be found here https://www.maths4everydaylife.org/conference
Wolfram Language http://www.wolfram.com/language/