Feb 6: Bernard Chazelle at Bryn Mawr

What an iPod, a Flock of Birds, and Your DNA have in Common

A Colloquium by Bernard Chazelle, Princeton University

Friday, Feb 6th, 4:00-5:00p (Tea at 3:30p) in Room 338, Park Science Building

This is part of the Fantastic Lectures in Computer Science (FLICS) lecture series jointly sponsored by Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore and Villanova.

For more information on FLICS, please check out:
http://fantasticlecturesincomputerscience.blogspot.com/

Abstract:
Moore's Law holds that, every 18 months, computing power doubles. Most of the wonders of the computer age can be attributed directly to Moore's Law. Alas, its days are numbered. What then? In this talk, I will argue that the years ahead will usher in the era of the "Algorithm," a notion that might prove just as disruptive as the revolution in the physical sciences was in the last century. I will discuss why algorithms are even more powerful than customarily believed but why they will not unleash their true potential until they become full-fledged scientific tools and not just problem-solvers.

Biography

Bernard Chazelle is Eugene Higgins Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University, where he has been on the faculty since 1986. He has held research and faculty positions at Carnegie-Mellon University, Brown University, Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Normale Superieure, University of Paris, INRIA, Xerox Parc, DEC SRC, and NEC Research, where he was a Fellow for many years. He received his Ph.D in computer science from Yale University in 1980. He is the author of the book "The Discrepancy Method."

Honors
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Member, European Academy of Sciences
Fellow, World Innovation Foundation
ACM Fellow
Guggenheim Fellow (1994)