  wolfram research is a private company that makes computation software. the founder and ceo of wolfram research is stephen wolfram, an english scientist and author, who maintains close involvement with the development of mathematica. the primary software product of wolfram research is the technical computing program mathematica. other products include wolfram systemmodeler, wolfram workbench, mathematica link for excel, gridmathematica, wolfram finance platform and webmathematica. the company launched wolfram alpha, an answer engine on 16 may 2009. it brings a new approach to knowledge generation and acquisition that involves large amounts of curated computable data in addition to semantic indexing of text.  wolfram research served as the mathematical consultant for the cbs television series numb3rs, a show about the mathematical aspects of crime-solving. wolfram research acquired mathcore engineering ab on march 30, 2011.{{cite web|last=wolfram|first=stephen|title=launching
Champaign,_Illinois Companies_established_in_1987 Mathematical_software Software_companies_based_in_Illinois Wolfram_Research