Great moments

As we may think

~ Adrian Colyer ~ 7 Comments
As we may think Vannevar Bush, The Atlantic, 1945 To close out the week, here’s another selection from the ‘Great moments in computing’ list - and it’s a true classic. Bush’s article was written in 1945 when he was Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development coordinating the work of about six thousand ... Continue Reading

Polynomial-time algorithms for prime factorization and discrete logarithms on a quantum computer

~ Adrian Colyer ~ 8 Comments
Polynomial-time algorithms for prime factorization and discrete logarithms on a quantum computer Shor, 1996 We’re sticking with the “Great moments in computing” series again today, and it’s the turn of Shor’s algorithm, the breakthrough work that showed it was possible to efficiently factor primes on a quantum computer (with all of the consequences for cryptography ... Continue Reading

Learning representations by back-propagating errors

~ Adrian Colyer ~ 2 Comments
Learning representations by back-propagating errors Rumelhart et al., Nature, 1986 It’s another selection from Martonosi’s 2015 Princeton course on “Great moments in computing” today: Rumelhart’s classic 1986 paper on back-propagation. (Geoff Hinton is also listed among the authors). You’ve almost certainly come across back-propagation before of course, but there’s still a lot of pleasure to ... Continue Reading

A theory of the learnable

~ Adrian Colyer ~ 7 Comments
A theory of the learnable Valiant, CACM 1984 (Also available in ) Today’s paper choice comes from the recommend study list of Prof. Margaret Martonosi’s 2015 Princeton course on “Great moments in computing.” A list I’m sure we’ll be dipping into again! There is a rich theory of computation when it comes to what we ... Continue Reading