Free Software for STEM education
Summary
We introduce a range of Free Software for a number of STEM problem areas and offer tips for both educators and students to increase the uptake of Free Software in STEM teaching. We cover software for 1) scientific/numeric computing (alternatives to Matlab); 2) symbolic computing (alternatives to Mathematica/MAPLE); 3) computer aided design (alternatives to AutoCAD/SolidWorks); 4) continuum mechanics; and 5) circuit design and simulation. Our aim is to encourage educators to use the Free Software tools instead of proprietary ones in their classes and to encourage students to find ways to use Free solutions instead of proprietary ones wherever and whenever possible.
Speaker
Heiki Lõhmus is the Vice President of Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). He has been a keen GNU/Linux user since around 2009 or so, and as a consequence, he has spent three years of high school and will soon have spent five years of engineering studies tiptoeing around the intimate relationship between proprietary software and education. He has been coordinating FSFE's localization efforts, campaigned for the release of Estonian Internet-voting software as Free Software, and led efforts to stop public sector endorsements of proprietary software in Estonia. Now he is looking to reconsider software in education.
