ExPOUND – Interview: Nicola Wilkinson

Nicola Wilkinson is based at Loughborough University and is currently working on the ExPOUND project…

What is ExPOUND?

ExPOUND is a project to develop a tool that will allow academics to produce something we are calling e-proofs to teach mathematical theorems and proofs.

What problems/issues is ExPOUND tackling?

Being able to have LaTeX editing capabilities in real time and learning Adobe Flex.

How would you like other software developers and users to get involved in what you are doing?

When there is a prototype, we would like people to review the prototype, contribute code under the open source license that we’re using that would enhance the tool in terms of functionality and any specialist areas that they may have. And obviously bug fixing!

What developer communities have you been involved in and if none, why not?

In the past, I have worked in large teams of developers, so I am used to that type of communities.  In education this doesn’t really exist unless it is part of a research group.  However, I run the community around WebPA, which is an e-assessment tool, which is big, but mostly lecturers who are looking at using the tool.

What is the coolest or most exciting thing in educational software development?

Probably my ExPOUND project, because it is doing something that no-one else has done and everyone always says they could have done with at university!