O’Reilly School of Technology Teams Up with Mathematica

By DE Editors

The O’Reilly School of Technology (OST; Sebastopol, CA) announced an agreement with Wolfram Research (Champaign, IL) to create a web-based version of Mathematica that takes full advantage of Ajax technologies.

Called Hilbert after the German mathematician, David Hilbert, the newly licensed software will be browser accessible and, using Ajax technologies, will emulate the desktop version of the software with remarkable fidelity, says the company. According to Scott Gray, Director of the OST, development of the Hilbert is currently underway and courses will be available to students in the latter half of 2008.

The school uses an online learning technique called “useractive learning” in which the student is actively engaged in building and creating projects while the instructional material is presented. The courses feature tutorial-style content and Learning Sandboxes that contain easy-to-use, real, open programming environments for students to try examples and work on projects.

Students at the O’Reilly School of Technology can earn a Certificate for Professional Development from the University of Illinois Office of Continuing Education upon completion of a selected series of courses. Certificates are currently offered in Client-Side Web Programming, Linux/Unix System Administration, Web Programming, Open Source Programming, and .NET Programming.

Given the power of Mathematica as a tool for visualizing and understanding mathematics, the pairing of Mathematica with OST’s online teaching model was seen as a logical, strategic development to all parties involved.

For details on the school, visit OST. For more information on Hilbert, go to Wolfram Research.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.