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
 * 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: user requirements, use cases, designs.
 * Report No.1
 * Field tests at HTL Bautechnik, HTL Graz and HS Schärding.
 * Contribution to a 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 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 established and the overall design stood the tests, the time has come to transfer Isac to educational practice. Thus Isac shall proceed from an academic R&D project to a professional cooperative in a triangular process between developers, educators and beneficial industries.

Team
 * Members of RISC Linz contribute knowledge required for enhancing Isac's mathematics engine
 * TU Graz contributes to user interface design
 * Universities of Applied Sciences in Upper Austria contribute with 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, ...
 * Continued eduTPS workshops at CADGME in Targu Mures, in Coimbra, ...
 * Planned for 2018: version of Isac for local Universities of Applied Sciences
 * Planned for 2020: version of Isac for cloud services
 * Planned for 2020: version of Isac for cloud services

Conclusions
 * Isac exhibits potential to change the way of learning mathematics such, that objections are elicited (search for 'objections').
 * Isac exhibits potential to change the way of learning mathematics such, that objections are elicited (search for 'objections').

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