Welcome to Alexandria!
Alexandria is a collaborative open-source platform dedicated to publishing, discussing and developing scientific research. It is designed to be community-oriented and intersectional, merging the functionality of version control with an intuitive interface. Any user can post their reflections, ask questions or publish research. Any work published on the platform becomes property of the community - anyone can make additions to it. Community members with the relevant expertise are able to peer review the proposed additions, approving or rejecting the changes. In this way, the community controls how a post evolves.
Posts are repositories of Quarto files, rendered by the platform into a human-readable format. This allows users to share the code behind their work, merging the gap between the process and the final result of research. Quarto is easier to use than LaTex, as it is a form of Markdown, and allows for the incorporation of complex figures using the four most common scientific programming languages: Python, R, Julia, and Observable. Learn more about Quarto.
Contributors
Development: First version (2024)
During 10 weeks from April to June of 2024 a team of five students built the initial version of Alexandria. This version is the base for the website you are currently browsing, and was built under the guidance of Andrew Demetriou as part of the CSE2000 Software Project course for the bachelor of Computer Science and Engineering at TU Delft. You can read more about this stage of the development in their report.
User experience design (2023)
With the initial funding gathered from the developed prototype, Andrew Demetriou hired a UX desiner, Zhuoting Wang, to help understand how to make Alexandria a platform that fullfils the needs of scientists. After conducting user research, she designed user flows for the platform and the interface for several of Alexandria's pages.
Development: Prototype (2022)
During 10 weeks from April to June of 2022 as part of the CSE2000 Software Project course for the bachelor of Computer Science and Engineering at TU Delft a team of five students built a prototype for Alexandria. This prototype explored the capabilities of the platform which did not exist at this point. It was used to showcase its potential and gather funding for further development. The prototype's source can be found in its GitHub repository.
Ideation
Placeholder text: Waiting for Andrew to write.
Alexandria is currently under development.