February 19, 2008–In support of China’s educational initiatives to prepare its next generation of scientists, engineers, and analysts, Wolfram Research has launched a new program offering free copies of Mathematica for Students Simplified Chinese Edition to students at select universities in China.

Nankai University, the University of Science and Technology of China, and Beijing Jiaotong University are the first schools to join this initiative. Since joining, hundreds of their students have received copies of Mathematica for Students for personal use. “This new program gives students at Nankai University an opportunity to learn and use a powerful mathematical tool–Mathematica,” said Zhonghua Wu, associate professor at Nankai University. “Mastering this tool does more than simply teach students mathematics at school. More importantly, it prepares them for challenges in computing and quantitative analysis in their future work and research.”

Students who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at these universities are invited to register for a free copy of Mathematica for Students.

Immediately following registration, students are sent a link from which Mathematica for Students Simplified Chinese Edition can be downloaded and installed on their personally owned computers. Each license lasts for one year from the date of download.

“This is a great opportunity for students in China to use Mathematica for their math, science, and engineering classes,” said Conrad Wolfram, director of strategic and international development. “While Mathematica may have previously been unavailable to them outside of the classroom, these students will now be able to create fully interactive reports and presentations, access a vast library of integrated data sources on demand, and complete their homework right at home.”

Universities in China who would like to make Mathematica for Students Simplified Chinese Edition available to their students are encouraged to contact Wolfram Research.

Mathematica for Students Simplified Chinese Edition is a complete version of Mathematica that provides language resources exclusively for Chinese-speaking Mathematica users and includes a full Simplified Chinese user interface. More details are available on the product website.