On the rare occasion, I have found myself in a conversation with someone who somehow seemed to be from the future. Many of us in the tech business naturally find ourselves occupied with near-term priorities, … Weiterlesen
In 1984, the legendary Alexander Grothendieck released one of the greatest mathematical texts of the century: “Esquisse d’un Programme.” It became a viral hit. Like an epic novel, it painted a sweeping vision of the … Read more
Was die Frage nach den negativen Folgen technischer Neuerungen angeht, hat die deutsche Gesellschaft ja nun den Ruf, eher besonders skeptisch und negativ zu sein. (Siehe aber z.B. auch diesen Beitrag mit einem Technikphilosophen, der … Weiterlesen
Maschinelles Lernen hat mit lernen gar nichts zu tun. Man sollte von diesem Begriff überhaupt ganz abkommen und es das nennen, was es ist: Statistische Parameteroptimierung. Das meinte Noel Sharkey, einer der Teilnehmer der Podiumsdiskussion … Read more
Meet Johanna Pirker, one of our featured young researchers in a series about some of the women attending this year’s Heidelberg Laureate Forum in September 2016. Credit: Photo by Matthias Rauch Johanna is a PhD … Weiterlesen
Credit: © Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation / Flemming – 2016 Sir Michael Atiyah is here at the 4th Heidelberg Laureate Forum both as a Fields Medalist (1966) and a winner of the Abel Prize (2004). … Weiterlesen
Bedeutend wird man in Mathematik (und Informatik) natürlich nicht, indem man einem bestimmten Rezept folgt. Und, ja, es ist immer wieder beeindruckend, wie oft Menschen Ratschläge bekommen und dann doch denjenigen Fehler machen, der … Weiterlesen
Becoming a great mathematician, or computer scientist, is not a matter of following career recipes. And yes, it is amazing how many people manage to listen to advice, and then go on to make the … Weiterlesen
In a previous posting I explained a bit about the Langlands program, and the role of Fields medalist Ngô Bảo Châu in finishing the proof of a special case of the general functoriality conjecture. The … Read more
In intelligenten Robotern und Geräten mit künstlicher Intelligenz steckt unheimlich großes Potential, um das Leben der Menschen zum Positiven zu verändern. Und das beste ist: Das ist gar keine Zukunftsmusik. Es passiert jetzt gerade. Knapp … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Weiterlesen
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 … Read more
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 … Weiterlesen
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 … Weiterlesen
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 … Read more
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, … Weiterlesen
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 … Weiterlesen
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 … Weiterlesen
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 … Read more