Wolfram Computation Meets Knowledge

Wolfram Innovator Award

Wolfram technologies have long been a major force in many areas of industry and research. Leaders in many top organizations and institutions have played a major role in using computational intelligence and pushing the boundaries of how the Wolfram technology stack is leveraged for innovation across fields and disciplines.

We recognize these deserving recipients with the Wolfram Innovator Award, which is awarded at the Wolfram Technology Conferences around the world.

2017

Dr. Marco Thiel

Professor, Institute for Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology
Professor, Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics

Areas: Complex Systems, Education, Mathematical Biology, Physics

Marco Thiel is a professor at the University of Aberdeen who uses Wolfram technologies in various domains, including education and research. A true evangelist, he has introduced hundreds of students and industry professionals alike to the Wolfram Language, and is an active user on Wolfram Community. For the last two years, Dr. Thiel has been using the Wolfram Language to develop algorithms and analyze sensor data of subjects in clinical dementia trials. The analysis is performed on large datasets through the external devices of subjects, and predictive tools, which determine changes in brain connectivity as dementia develops, are created. In his classes, Dr. Thiel utilizes CDF documents to create interactive lecture notes for his students. Using real-world data, students are able to connect topics they learn in other courses through simulations done in real time, instilling computational thinking into students long after they finish the course.

2017

Youngjoo Chung

Professor, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

Areas: Authoring and Publishing, Education

Dr. Chung is a professor at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, and has created an extensive symbolic computing package for versatile manipulation of mathematical expressions using the Wolfram Language. His package includes over 800 functions ranging from basic algebra to functional analysis. The package also contains its own interpreter language, complete online documentation and two palettes for increased ease of execution. Additionally, Dr. Chung maintains the South Korean Mathematica Users group, and is a highly active member of the international community using Wolfram technologies.

2017

Dr. Tarkeshwar Singh

Quantitative Analyst and Software Engineer, Quiet Light Securities

Areas: Authoring and Publishing, Finance, Machine Learning, Risk Management

Dr. Singh is a quantitative analyst and software engineer at Quiet Light Securities and an early adopter of Wolfram Finance Platform. In conjunction with the CTO, Robert Maxwell, Dr. Singh brought Finance Platform on board to support daily derivative trading operations by developing extensive strategies and volatility surface models, as well as performing backtesting with intraday market tick data. He also provided daily snapshots of company-wide risk through CDF documents that provided insights and satisfied compliance requirements. He also developed an internal training program to bring quants up to speed with Wolfram technologies. In the future, he hopes to utilize the machine learning capabilities of the Wolfram Language to develop advanced trading algorithms through neural networks.

2017

Chris Reed

Aerospace Corporation

Areas: Aerospace, Applied Mathematics, Authoring and Publishing, Physics

Dr. Reed is an applied mathematician at Aerospace Corporation who uses Mathematica to identify and create various aerospace solutions specific to rocket and satellite design and testing. A certified instructor at Aerospace Corp., he has introduced many colleagues to Wolfram technologies through his classes, where it has become a staple for experimentation. Dr. Reed has two approved patents that involve solving nonlinear boundary-value problems and rely on the Wolfram Language’s modeling and visualization capabilities.

2017

Peter Nilsson

English Teacher and Director of Research, Innovation and Outreach, Deerfield Academy

Areas: Computational Humanities, Education

Peter Nilsson is an English teacher and the Director of Research at Deerfield Academy. Earlier this year, he led the development of an introductory course in digital humanities using the Wolfram Language. Designed for students with minimal coding experience, the course focused on four different projects blending students’ previous knowledge from English courses with basic computational concepts—allowing them to dive deeper into and perform textual analysis on famous novels as well as their own writing.

2017

David Milner

Senior Research Engineer, Science Applications International Corporation

Areas: Aerospace, Mechanical Engineering

David Milner is a research engineer at SAIC who was introduced to Wolfram technologies in 2016 through Wolfram SystemModeler. His project was the development and simulation of an octocopter—with all aspects of design, including every mechanical, electrical and control system, modeled with SystemModeler and the Wolfram Language. David’s project is now being presented as a potential solution for a vertical takeoff aircraft.

2017

Mathematical Methods Computer-Based Exam System Team, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

Areas: Education

For the last six years, the VCAA has conducted a trial aligning the use of computers in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. This trial involved a number of schools and several hundred students to develop effective methodologies for combining the use of Wolfram technologies and teaching. The trial was successful, resulting in a widespread acceptance of computer-based examinations with 700,000 Victoria students and teachers now having access to Wolfram’s educational-focused tool suite.

2017

Dr. Massimo Fazio

Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Areas: Biotechnology, Image Processing, Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Fazio is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham whose main focus is optical imaging. His research using Wolfram technologies led to several significant NIH grants, including the 2017 Xtreme Research Award from Heidelberg Engineering at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) meeting. This award was granted to Dr. Fazio for creating a custom clinical imaging protocol for glaucoma patients that provides an estimate of the eye-specific mechanical response to time-varying intraocular pressure. Additionally, he created an image processing algorithm that quantifies the 3D structure of the optic nerve from OCT clinical data entirely in the Wolfram Language.

2017

Andrew Yule

Flow Assurance Specialist, Assured Flow Solutions

Areas: Authoring and Publishing, Chemical Engineering, Data Analytics, Fluid Dynamics

Andrew Yule is a flow assurance specialist at Assured Flow Solutions who developed an internal toolkit written entirely using the Wolfram Language and deployed it to his colleagues through EnterpriseCDF. Containing over 40 different calculations and workflows that are used daily throughout the company, this toolkit centralized Assured Flow Solutions utilities and has completely changed the way the entire organization views data analytics and visualizations. He also uses the Wolfram Cloud to deploy APIs that run calculations as a back end to Visual Basic UIs.

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