History

1993: UNU/IIST, the trigger for the Isac project
Dines Björner, as founding director of the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology (UNU-IIST), searched for cooperative projects in Europe. In Austria he contacted Peter Lucas, his former colleague from the Vienna IBM Laboratory, with ideas for a new generation of educational mathematics software and he also involved Bruno Buchberger.

The project never came to fruition for political reasons, because at that time the Austrian Ministry for Science and the Austrian Ministry for Education were headed by persons obliged to two different political parties.

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Phase 1: 1994 - 2001 "Orientation and conception"
After breakup of the UNU/IIST project the material stayed with the Austrian project administrator, Walther Neuper. In order to keep the project's ideas and contacts alive without immediate funding, he continued working on the project at TU Graz and RISC Linz.

Collaboration

In collaboration with Bruno Buchberger some prototypes with Mathematica were done; with Peter Lucas existing software was reviewed and possibilities for realising the ideas for a new generation were investigated and documented by Walther Neuper.

Deliverables
 * [[Media:Wn-diss.pdf | PhD]] under supervision of Peter Lucas and Bruno Buchberger.

Conclusions
 * Isac will be an Open Source Project, based on Isabelle
 * Technology based in Isabelle is urgently required in doing mathematics and complements CAS, DGS and other educational software.
 * Focus of Isac is 'applied mathematics' as is taught in engineering studies down to high-school.

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Phase 2: 2001 - 2008 "Develop math-engine and front-end"
The mathematics engine is being developed by Walther Neuper and the front-end is designed and implemented by collaborative efforts at TU Graz and other universities. The name Isac is chosen (Isabelle for calculation). Financial support was given for field tests at Austrian schools.

Team

Thomas Fink and Thomas Oberhuber built the first prototype of the front-end.

Klaus Schmaranz, Alan Krempler,  Andreas Griesmayer,  Mario Hochreiter,  Richard Gradischnegg and  Walther Neuper provided the overall design of Isac.

Stefan Karnel, Matthias Goldgruber and  Richard Lang contributed basic mathematics knowledge, Johannes Loinig, Georg Kompbacher,  Robert Könighofer,  Manuel Koschuch,  Martin Lang,  Martin Moschitz,  Nebojsa Simic,  Marco Steger contributed to the front-end.

Deliverables
 * Isac design documents: [[Media:Urd.pdf | user requirements]], [[Media:Use.pdf | use cases]], [[Media:Isac-docu.pdf | designs]].
 * [[Media:Isac-report-01.pdf | Isac Report No.1]]
 * Field tests at HTL Bautechnik, HTL Graz and HS Schärding.
 * Contribution to a [[Media:Aso08.pdf | networking project]] with universities in former Yugoslavia.

Conclusions
 * The design and all interfaces can be held stable.
 * ISAC is useful in educational practice, shown by field-tests in Austrian schools.
 * Since funding from Austrian schools is insufficient, collaborators are to be found.

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Phase 3: 2008 - 2015 "Establish 'New Generation' as an academic topic"
Academic contacts had exhibited, that the original conception of Isac was accompanied by analogous initiatives, which are still more or less active: the E-Math Project and Socos, and also initiatives in geometry like GCLC or GeoProof. So academic contacts are intensified leading to agreements for joint work on a new generation of educational software.

Team Gabriella Daroczy, Markus Kienleitner,  Franz Kober,  Mathias Lehnfeld,  Diana Meindl,  Jan Rocnik and  Tom Zillinger contributed in this phase.

Deliverables
 * Roadmap on "Technical and Social Challenges related to Collaborative E-Learning in Central and South Eastern European Countries" compiled in the project ASO 3-01-2007.
 * Setup ThEdu workshop series in computer mathematics.
 * Setup eduTPS workshop series in engineering education at CADGME 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and in other conferences: CSASC'13, Austrian-Hungarian Mathematical Conference, etc.
 * Collection of questionnaires on application of algebra rules from 300 students of STEM/MINT studies in Austria, Finland, Romania, Serbia and Spain. Preliminary interpretation presented at CADGME 2010.
 * Two proposals to Sparkling Science in 2009 and 2010
 * A [[Media:EU-EVALUATION-1204.pdf | FP7 Proposal]] (Isac runs under 'UNIVERSITAET LINZ') in cooperation with experts from Isabelle and Coq.
 * Talks at FATPA 09, KMI Graz, CADGME, GeoGebra, OeMG, FATPA, Castro Urdiales, CompLand, CADGME, PLMMS, TIME, RISC, FATPA, Isabelle, ELAM, CADE, TU Graz, FATPA, CADGME, CSASC, FH Hagenberg, CICM, CADGE, Theorema, AUSHUN, AUSHUN15.
 * A special journal issue “TP-based Systems and Education” and several Articles

Conclusions
 * Isac's mathematical and educational foundations are promising.
 * Isac is part of EU-wide work on a new generation of educational software in mathematics.
 * Isac's prototype is ready to be transformed into a professional tool for educational practice.

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Phase 4: 2015 - 2022 "Make Isac an interactive process: development -- education -- industry"
Since theoretical foundations of Isac have been clarified and the overall design stood the tests, the time had come to transfer Isac to educational practice. Thus Isac aimed at proceeding from an academic R&D project to a professional cooperative in a triangular process between developers, educators and beneficial industries. This aim failed, details are found in the [[Media:Isac-report-02.pdf | Isac Report No.2]].

Team
 * Members of RISC Linz had the expertise required for enhancing Isac's mathematics engine
 * Universities of Applied Sciences in Upper Austria contributed engineering applications, in particular examples for reference on p.15 -- p.39.

Deliverables
 * User Requirements, updated for engineering education (ongoing), published partly (1, 2, ..)
 * Planning development: estimation for development efforts
 * Deepened insight into general offers of TP-based educational software from collaboration with educators (1, 2, 3, 4)
 * Continued ThEdu workshops at CADE in Gothenburg, at FLOC in Cambridge, at CADE in Natal, Brazil, all with post-proceedings 2018, 2019 and 2020.
 * Continued eduTPS workshops at CADGME in Targu Mures and in Coimbra.
 * [[Media:Isac-report-02.pdf | Isac Report Nr.2]]
 * Integration of Isac's Lucas-Interpreter into Isabelle

Conclusions .
 * The state of development of Isac's prototype requires efforts of about 10 man-years.
 * A formula editor with 2-dimensional rendering plus semantic information is still lacking in the Java world; respective development would add to the 10 man-years.
 * There appears no way for funding a project of that size.
 * So the strategies in development and in funding need a change.

Phase 5: 2022 --- "Change in design and funding strategies"
The new strategy is to drop Isac's Java front-end (and keep it for demonstrations of features, which cannot be realised in Isabelle soon) and to shift Isac's mathematics-engine inbetween Isabelle's proof machinery and Isabelle's font-end Isabelle/jEdit and in the near future Isabelle/VSCode. Presently Isabelle/jEdit has no 2-dimensional formula editor, but it provides semantic information from within formulas.

Thus Isac can be transparent by re-using Isabelle/jEdit; development of 1-3 man-years shall lead to a system applicable in educational settings, where no 2-dimensional formula editor is required, for instance in logic. The fact, that the next generation front-end Isabelle/VSCode uses a "rich client", promises to extend VSCode for a 2-dimensional formula editor.

Cooperation with IIS revealed, that VSCode is nicely accessible for blind persons, which suggests to prefer this experimental front-end of Isabelle for further development of Isac. So there is a "window of opportunity" to join efforts to adapt VSCode for a 1-dimensional formula editor appropriate for blind students.

Team The project leader cooperates, as since 20 years, with students, now from
 * Johannes Kepler University Linz, in particular RISC and IIS.
 * University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg near Linz.

Deliverables
 * [[Media: Teaser.pdf | Advertisement for students]] joining Isabelle/VSCode/Isac projects

Conclusions

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