Mission
Scientific content increasingly relies on the presentation and authoring of complex multimedia diagrams and figures, sometimes interactive, to convey information in a non-textual way. Wikis and user-generated hyper-linked content have both been very successful in the case for text—this is what we aim to do for mathematical diagrams.
Many professors in higher education who write textbooks know TeX, however, they don't often know how to program the Web. The future of building interactive user interfaces should lie not in the hands of programmers, but in the hands of the expert of a given field—the goal of this project is to supply math, physics, and engineering professors with a platform to express mathematical concepts to students to provide immersive learning environments.
Ideally, this project serves twofold: First, in closing the gap for non-web-technical authors to express ideas and concepts through Web technology without the knowledge of coding or user interface design, by mapping a typesetting language to interactive programming. Second, in providing deep, educational experiences for our youth to engage more in the sciences, and begin to use exploration and creativity in learning through interactive textbooks.
The loose structure and nature of user interface design poses a problem for documenting science and related interfaces in a consistent manner. TeX provides us with some "laws" to obey in order to design the output of a text and graphical language around. Hence, we can attempt to create a synthesis of a structured user interface specification (TeX) and a structured functional specification (HTML5) to provide a publishing platform for the current and next generation.
The Art is where we can blend these two standards bodies; higher levels of abstraction allow people to express their ideas without having to worry about the mechanisms by which the technology is rendering their works. It is in these environments when people can express themselves freely.
Mathapedia is the original research project behind this idea. Its rendering engine grew into LaTeX2JS, an open-source library with its own developer site — install guides, examples, and the code all live there.
This project began as Dan's master's thesis, The Art of Digital Publishing (UC Berkeley EECS, December 2012) — read the PDF.
Team
The digital textbook platform was created by Dan Lynch, working with his advisor, Babak Ayazifar.
Dan Lynch
Dan's interest in mathematics and music inspired him to transfer into the college of engineering to learn about Fourier analysis at UC Berkeley. Since then, Dan has authored over 300 pages of signal processing documentation that is used by the EECS department, and has now applied that experience to build the Mathapedia digital textbook platform with Babak.
Remember, you are a function of the sum of living things…
Babak Ayazifar
Dr. Babak Ayazifar received his undergraduate education at the California Institute of Technology, and his Master's and doctoral training at MIT, all in Electrical Engineering. Since spring 2005, when he joined the Berkeley EECS faculty as a Lecturer, Babak has taught Structure and Interpretation of Systems and Signals (EE 20N); Signals and Systems (EE 120); and Teaching Techniques for Electrical Engineering (EE 301). His teaching honors include the Goodwin Medal (1999), MIT's top teaching award for graduate students, and the Harold L. Hazen Teaching Award (1995). He is co-inventor on U.S. Patent no. 5,387,940, and a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu.
Special Thanks
Thank you to the great team who built MathJax, the math rendering engine of the web.