Colloquium

The data sciences (statistics, and recently machine learning) have always been part of the underpinning of all of the natural sciences.

MyLifeBits is a lifetime store of everything. It is the fulfillment of Vannevar Bush's 1945 Memex vision including full-text search, text & audio annotations, and hyperlinks.

The C++ programming language is now 25 years old, and used by millions of programmers. Developing such a language is a challenging business. I will present a personal view of some of the factors that were and still are critical for C++'s sustained success.

Combinatorial auctions (CAs) allow one seller to allocate a collection of heterogeneous and discrete goods to multiple buyers, each of which may have complex valuations, e.g. "I only want A if I get B" , "I only want A or B", etc.

A clear understanding of how the brain works will make it possible for us to build intelligent machines, in silicon, that will exceed our human ability in surprising ways. The brain is not a computer, but a memory system that stores experiences in a way that reflects the true structure of the world

ABSTRACT: Many NP-complete problems are easy for random inputs. For example, in a random graph where each edge is present with probability 1/2 one can find a Hamiltonian cycle in linear time, almost surely. On the other hand, random instances of satisfiability and graph coloring appear to be hard.

We study the problem of designing seller optimal auctions. Prior to this work, the only previously known auctions that are approximately optimal in worst case employ randomization.

Human perceptual skills are remarkable, but largely underutilized by current graphical user interfaces.

Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies http://mitpress.mit.edu/leonardoslaptop

Winner of IEEE book award for "Distinguished Literary Contribution furthering Public Understanding of the Profession"