Fred Brooks on Virtual Environments On the second day of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, Fred Brooks took the stage to talk virtual environments. We were lucky enough to interview him last year, when we focused mostly on software development. Because … 22. Sep 2016 | By Gail Carmichael | 0 comments
Collaboration (in Cartoons) Mathematics is lonely work. Or so the romantic stereotype has it: the lone genius in an empty library. The sage on the mountaintop. Andrew Wiles in the attic. But most mathematical work is profoundly collaborative. I … 22. Sep 2016 | By Ben Orlin | 0 comments
The Langlands Program, Part I The Langlands program is the name generally given to a highly influential vision unifying two different areas of mathematics, referring to a set of ideas first brought to light by Robert Langlands at the end … 22. Sep 2016 | By Peter Woit | 1 comment
Sometimes the Noise is Signals, Too Early in his talk, computer scientist John Hopcroft noted a funny fact about clustering algorithms: they work better on synthetic data than real data. But this is more than an odd tidbit about software. It’s … 21. Sep 2016 | By Ben Orlin | 4 comments
Teaching computers how to understand stories: 5 questions with Wolfgang Yarlott Wolfgang Victor Yarlott, a Young Researcher at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, studies narrative through the lens of computer science. He completed his undergraduate studies at MIT and recently began a PhD program at Florida International … 21. Sep 2016 | By Daniel Gross | 0 comments
Eskalierende Werkzeuge mit Andrew Wiles Ich verstehe bei weitem nicht alles, was in den Vorträgen beim Heidelberg Laureate Forum erzählt wird, im Detail, und ich gehe davon aus, dass es den allermeisten Teilnehmern ähnlich geht. Aber auch Vorträge, die und … 21. Sep 2016 | By Markus Pössel | 5 comments
The Essence of the HLF, in One Story At most scientific conferences, you find a cross-section of ages: elder statesmen, rising stars, mid-career workhorses, maturing postdocs, and fresh-faced PhD candidates. The HLF brings together the two extremes: the most legendary of the legends, … 21. Sep 2016 | By Ben Orlin | 0 comments
Could Amazon Echo improve life in a rural Indian village? Raj Reddy likes to imagine a world where consumers can buy any product from anywhere, and computers are always listening. He’s not describing a dystopia where consumerist computers take over the world. Instead, Reddy, an … 20. Sep 2016 | By Daniel Gross | 3 comments
Sir Michael Atiyah: Mit Einfachheit zum Erfolg Ich hatte Sir Michael Atiyah (auf dem HLF-Blog schon hier mit “21 essential quotes” verewigt) eigentlich eine eher technische Frage zur Vereinfachung des Noether-Theorems stellen wollen (ein Problem, das ich seit langem für die Königsdisziplin … 20. Sep 2016 | By Markus Pössel | 4 comments
A Conversation with Gerd Faltings Fields medalist Gerd Faltings is here in Heidelberg for the HLF, and while he’s not giving a talk he will be participating in other activities such as visits by the laureates to local schools. He’s … 20. Sep 2016 | By Peter Woit | 0 comments