Community Learning Space

Getting the Internet Ready for Mathematics

Benton Leong, Waterloo Maple Inc.

March 25, 1997 at 3:30 p.m.
Davis Centre, Room 1304, University of Waterloo

Abstract

Until recently, the Internet has been dominated primarily by textually based information. The quick defacto standardization of universal graphics formats, such as GIF, has transformed the Web almost overnight, enriching the information that we can see and use. The current lack of a widely used standard for embedding mathematics and transmitting mathematical objects hinders better use of the Internet for technical communications and collaboration. Recent attempts have been made by the W3C community and by the OpenMath consortium to build a language for mathematics suitable for communications on the Web and between products that display, compute, and otherwise use mathematics. Examples of current progress in Web components for mathematics and embedded math engines developed by Waterloo Maple Inc. and others will be demonstrated. These new technologies will simplify the way in which mathematicians and technical professionals can generate, explore and share new information.

Biography

Benton Leong is the manager for business development at Waterloo Maple Inc. His responsibilities include creating strategic alliances with publishers of technical information and with producers of scientific software tools. He has been a member of the original research team at the University of Waterloo that created the Maple system and is one of the founders of Waterloo Maple. His interests include user interfaces for professional tools and formal computation systems.

Waterloo Maple Inc.

Waterloo Maple Inc. is a global leader in the development of mathematical tools for the technical professionals. Its Maple V product is used for education and research in universities and labs throughout the world and has been instrumental in the calculus reform movement in the U.S. Today, mathematics technologies developed by Waterloo Maple are used by over a million people in products such as Mathcad, MATLAB, Scientific Workplace, and new interactive textbooks and interactive technical handbooks.

For more information

Shirley Fenton
The infraNET Project
Computer Systems Group, University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4074 Everyone is welcome. Refreshments served.