Donald Knuth – Computer Scientist

Posted on May 23, 2006  Comments (1)

photo of Donald Knuth playing his home organ

Love at First Byte by Kara Platoni:

In the early ’60s, publisher Addison-Wesley invited Knuth to write a book on compiler design. Knuth eagerly drafted 3,000 pages by hand before someone at the publishing house informed him that would make an impossibly long book. The project was reconceived as the seven-volume The Art of Computer Programming. Although Knuth has written other books in the interim, this would become his life’s work. The first three volumes were published in 1968, 1969 and 1973. Volume 4 has been in the works nearly 30 years.

Its subject, combinatorial algorithms, or computational procedures that encompass vast numbers of possibilities, hardly existed when Knuth began the series. Now the topic grows faster than anyone could reasonably chronicle it. “He says if everyone else stopped doing work he would catch up better,” deadpans Jill Knuth, his wife of nearly 45 years.

Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms – Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms – Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3: Sorting and Searching

Usually a lone wolf, Knuth collaborated on his typography programs with some of the world’s best typographers and his students. He produced two software programs, the TeX typesetting system and the METAFONT alphabet design system, which he released to the public domain. The programs are used for the bulk of scientific publishing today. “He made everybody’s life so much better and made the scholarly work so much more beautiful,” Papadimitriou says. “He has exported a lot of good will for computer science.”

See photo:

He likes to hide jokes in the index, as in Volume 3, where “royalties, use of” leads you to a page with an illustration of an organ-pipe array, a little wink to the 16-rank organ that dominates his home. He plays four-hands music with Jill, who swears that the neighbors tend to complain that the music emanating from their house is in fact not loud enough.

Related:

Golden Buckyballs

Posted on May 23, 2006  Comments (0)

In the hunt for golden buckyballs:

Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland and at the University of Nebraska report in today’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have discovered hollow molecular structures made of pure gold — golden buckyballs.
…
“You can put another atom in the center,” Wang said. Depending upon the kind of atom put at the center of the cage, he said, you could create a material with novel chemical, magnetic or even optical properties. “We intend to try that.”

Related:

Mexico: Pumping Out Engineers

Posted on May 19, 2006  Comments (4)

Mexico: Pumping Out Engineers

Currently, 451,000 Mexican students are enrolled in full-time undergraduate programs, vs. just over 370,000 in the U.S. The Mexican students benefit from high-tech equipment and materials donated to their schools by foreign companies, which help develop course content to fit their needs. Many of these engineers graduate knowing how to use the latest computer-assisted design (CAD) software and speaking fluent English.

Another country on the engineering education bandwagon for economic growth.

Those figures are quite impressive. I would like to see what Vivek Wadhwa (one of the authors of the Duke study: USA Under-counting Engineering Graduates) says about the comparability of the figures. Still, the number of engineering undergraduate students in Mexico surprises me; this is one more indication of how many people see the value of engineering education.

Related:

  • Engineering Education Worldwide
  • America’s Technology Advantage Slipping
  • Top degree for S&P 500 CEOs? Engineering
  • Engineering in America
  • About That Engineering Gap… by Vivek Wadhwa, BusinessWeek Dec 2005.
  • China’s Economic Science Experiment
  • Shortage of Engineers?

      • Entirely New Antibiotic Developed

      Posted on May 18, 2006  Comments (4)

      Potent antibiotic to target MRSA

      A potent antibiotic which kills many bacteria, including MRSA, has been discovered. Scientists with Merck, isolated platensimycin from a sample of South African soil and have developed an antibiotic based on that discovery.

      If the compound passes clinical trials it will become only the third entirely new antibiotic developed in the last four decades.

      Details in the journal Nature reveal the antibiotic works in a completely different way to all others.

      It acts to block enzymes involved in the synthesis of fatty acids, which bacteria need to construct cell membranes.

      Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a type of bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics, including: methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin. Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities who have weakened immune systems. More information on MRSA is available from the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

      Related:

      • Soil Could Shed Light on Antibiotic Resistance
      • Antibiotic Discovery Stagnates
      • Articles on the overuse of anti-biotics
      • New antibiotic sets sight on ‘superbug’

        • Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge

        Posted on May 18, 2006  Comments (2)

        The Synapse Revealed

        Image by Graham Johnson, Graham Johnson Medical Media. The Synapse Revealed – Deep inside the brain, a neuron prepares to transmit a signal to its target. The brain contains billions of neurons, whose network of chemical messages form the basis of all thought, movement and behavior.

        The National Science Foundation (NSF) and Science created the Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge: “In a world where science literacy is dismayingly rare, illustrations provide the most immediate and influential connection between scientists and other citizens, and the best hope for nurturing popular interest.” The deadline for submissions is 31 May 2006. See information on the 2005 winners (including the image shown here).

        Science Education and Jobs

        Posted on May 17, 2006  Comments (0)

        Education Seeds the Ground Science, Technology Meet Light Spectrum by Chris Brunson is well worth reading:

        “The course was designed specifically for adult learners and had the challenge of putting a lab-based course online,” said Fenna Hanes, NEBHE senior director, office of programs. “The audience was high school, community college and some four-year college faculty from both science and technology disciplines including physics, chemistry, math, electronics, telecommunications and engineering technologies.”

        This article explores another example of NSF funding innovative projects to support science and engineering education – PHOTON2 Program Overview. And the article goes on to explore other activity by institutions building off that work.

        In addition to providing photonics technology training to traditional community college students Three Rivers Community College (TRCC) has provided incumbent workers training…
        The training was a combination of on-site as well as on-line education.
        …
        Companies in the region regularly call Judy Donnelly, program coordinator of photonics programs, Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, and Nicholas Massa, professor of laser electro-optics technology at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC).

        Both get similar calls, quite regularly from companies, with the query: “I need people, I want to hire techs, do you have any students I can hire?” Even on company field trips, the almost-grads of both colleges are asked if they want to come to work for the corporations, that are growing and need skilled, educated people.


        “Donna Goyette at Ellis Tech (H.H. Ellis Technical High School, in Danielson) is creating a full-year optics course for her seniors,” said Donnelly. “She is doing a fantastic job. Since they are not far from IPG Photonics in Mass., it also works out to be a good collaboration.” IPG Photonics, incidentally, has hired a number of graduates and student interns from the laser electro-optics and photonics programs at STCC and TRCC over the past several years.

        Advances in technology require novel approaches to education.

        Related Posts:

        Scientific Misinformation

        Posted on May 17, 2006  Comments (1)

        Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles’ Foe, It’s Fuel by Gina Kolata:

        But that, it turns out, is all wrong. Lactic acid is actually a fuel, not a caustic waste product. Muscles make it deliberately, producing it from glucose, and they burn it to obtain energy.
        ..
        “I had huge fights, I had terrible trouble getting my grants funded, I had my papers rejected,” Dr. Brooks recalled. But he soldiered on, conducting more elaborate studies with rats and, years later, moving on to humans. Every time, with every study, his results were consistent with his radical idea.

        Eventually, other researchers confirmed the work. And gradually, the thinking among exercise physiologists began to change.

        Related posts:

        The Economic Benefits of Math

        Posted on May 16, 2006  Comments (3)

        The crisis in maths in Australia by J Hyam Rubinstein:

        The rapid economic reconstruction of Japan after the war was remarkable. A major feature was adoption of ideas of the great American statistician W. Edwards Deming on quality control and efficiency of production processes. In the United States Wal-mart, the retail giant, has a superb supply chain system, which is a key part of cost control. In Australia BHP Billiton has estimated that its group of mathematical scientists have saved the company several hundreds of millions of dollars in costs in a single year.

        On our Curious Cat Management Improvement blog we post frequently about Deming’s ideas.

        Most countries in the world, except for the poorest, give special attention and support to the mathematical sciences. For example, in the US, the National Science Foundation has instituted a number of programs to increase the supply of both mathematicians and statisticians. China and India stand out as emerging powerhouse of mathematical skills and the innovative technologies that will emerge from this investment.

        Australia is an exception. We are in the midst of a national review of the mathematical sciences that will be completed in mid-2006. The international reviewers have been travelling across Australia. It is no exaggeration to say that the nation is facing a very serious situation.

        As we have stated in previous posts the macro-economic impacts of government policy relating to science and math can be large:

        Nanoscale Fractal Molecule

        Posted on May 15, 2006  Comments (0)

        Nanoscale Fractal Molecule

        Scientists Create the First Synthetic Nanoscale Fractal Molecule by Andrea Gibson:

        The molecule, developed by researchers at the University of Akron, Ohio University and Clemson University, eventually could lead to new types of photoelectric cells, molecular batteries and energy storage, according to the scientists, whose study was published online today by the journal Science.

        A University of Akron research team led by Vice President for Research George Newkome used molecular self-assembly techniques to synthesize the molecule in the laboratory. The molecule, bound with ions of iron and ruthenium, forms a hexagonal gasket.

        Ohio University physicists Saw-Wai Hla and Violeta Iancu, who specialize in imaging objects at the nanoscale, confirmed the creation of the man-made fractal. To capture the image, the physicists sprayed the molecules onto a piece of gold, chilled them to minus 449 degrees Fahrenheit to keep them stable, and then viewed them with a scanning tunneling microscope.

        more posts on nanotechnology

        Universities Focus on Economic Benefits

        Posted on May 15, 2006  Comments (2)

        In the USA, Georgia Tech Focuses on Competitive Challenges

        A leader in science and engineering education and with a research program totaling more than $400 million per year, Georgia Tech is a major developer of science and technology innovations. Building on these new technologies and collaborating with like-minded organizations, the Enterprise Innovation Institute will work with the private sector to apply innovations to real marketplace needs

        and in India, Innovation through industry-academia tie-up

        The Samtel Display Technology Research Centre at IIT Kanpur, the Micro-electronics Research Centre funded by Semiconductor and EDA companies at IIT Kharagpur, the Automotive Research Centre at IIT Madras, IBM’s Research Lab at IIT Delhi and the HP Lab at IIIT-Bangalore are examples of academia-industry partnerships.

        Middle School Math

        Posted on May 14, 2006  Comments (0)

        228 middle school students compteted in the prestigious individual MATHCOUNTS competition. Daesun Yim of West Windsor, NJ won the national champion title and the $8,000 Donald G. Weinert Scholarship, a trip to U.S. Space Camp and a notebook computer by answering:

        A jar contains 8 red balls, 6 green balls and 24 yellow balls. In order to make the probability of choosing a yellow ball from the jar on the first selection equal to1/2, Kerry will add x red balls and y green balls. What is the average of x and y?

        Answer: 5

        In the team competition, Virginia captured the title of National Team Champions. Team members include Jimmy Clark of Falls Church, Divya Garg of Annandale, Brian Hamrick of Annandale, Daniel Li of Fairfax and coach Barbara Burnett of Falls Church.

        Read more about the 2006 competition. Watch video highlights from the 2005 competition.

        MATHCOUNTS is a national enrichment, coaching and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement through grassroots involvement in every U.S. state and territory.

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