Abdulaziz Al-Harqan’s site

I am a 18 year Qatari who studies Computer Science in Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar.

Assignments:

Randy Pausch Lecture Summary

Randy Pausch was a professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

He won several awards for his contribution in improving the computer science domain.

5 points I liked in his lecture:

1. Ask for help when in need, to avoid time wasting time

2. It’s fine to make mistakes as long as you learn from them

3. Using time management tools like a calendar is important and efficient. It would help me in planning my tasks accordingly.

4. Organization is vital because it saves a lot of time and it creates the right environment for the right mindset.

5. Never lose focus while doing work, because any interruption might be cost you a lot because of the fact that you need time to re-focus on your work.

Professor Cristos’ Presentation-Theory of Computation

-What is a decision problem?

It’s a situation where someone has to make a decision whether the solution is yes or no to a certain problem.

-What does it mean for a problem too be decidable?

There are specific algorithms or solutions to solve this specific problem.

-What is class P? What is class NP?

Class P is the class of all decision problems which are solvable. NP is the class of all decision problems which are confirmable.

-If you solve the (P vs NP) question, how much will you get?

One million US Dollars.

Professor Riley’s Presentation – Security

-Who discovered the attack? How long has it been going on?

Cyber analysts at Google said that five security breaches have occurred at Apple. It is not assured how long it took some say two months and others say two years.

-Who orchestrated that attacks? How do we know?

Hackers who were connected with the Chinese Government. Because of the spyware that was in the Uighurs’ iphones.

-What did the attack allow the hackers to do with the victim’s phone?

It allowed them to impact the sites that were related to Uighurs community

-On a technical level, what did the attack do? How did it do it?

It used the internet network as a way to monitor the Uighur Muslims.

-Why were the security flaws not patched earlier?

Because Apple did not know about it until the day Google’s told them.

Professor Hammoud’s Presentation – Cloud Computing

-Why and what is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is the use of remote servers in a network while being hosted on the internet, its job is to store, manage and process the data from received. The factor that gives cloud computing the upperhand is that it is more efficient and accessible at any time any where.

-Is cloud computing a new technology? In other words, what is unique about cloud computing?

That it’s a storage place outside the computer system.

-What are three major cloud service models would you use to run your simple python programs?

The three models are IaaS (Infrastructure as a service), PaaS(Platform as a service) and SaaS(Software as a Service). PaaS would be the most useful one because it provides a platform to allow the developer to build applications.

-What is the economic/business model of cloud computing?

The application of cloud computing could cause a lot of saving, the data will more secure as professionals are protecting it, and it will reduce the business cost as they are not employing IT people to maintain their information.

Professor Giselle’s Presentation – Programming Languages

-What are programming languages for?

They are the method that the user interacts with computers, and execute several tasks using them.

-How do we translate solutions to computer programs? What are the limitations?

Translating algorithms into a programming language is called coding. Thus, we use certain codes to solve certain problems. However, executing the code or finding the right algorithm is time consuming.

-How many programming languages are there? What does this number tell you?

There are 256 programming languages. This shows how large is the world of computing.

Professor Gianni’s Presentation – Robotics and AI

- Can you give both an operational and a philosophical definition of AI?

Operational AI is a type of intelligent system designed for real-world applications, particularly at commercial scale. Philosophical AI is identified with the attempt to answer such questions as whether artificial agents created AI can ever reach the full heights of human intelligence.

- Can you name at least three different techniques or sub-fields of AI?

- Philosophy

- Logic/Mathematics

- Computation

- Psychology/Cognitive Science

- Biology/Neuroscience

- Evolution

- AI has been around since about 70 years so far. Why is it booming right now?

The main factor is that computing power, Early personal computers didn’t have sufficient power. Supercomputers were highly expensive, out of the range of even small and medium organisations. Now Nvidia GPUs cluster (worth few hundred thousands dollar) can match the capabilities that of Supercomputer.

- Can you name at least three application sectors where robots are being largely employed? What are the reasons?

1- Helthcare: Robots in medicine help by relieving medical personnel from routine tasks, that take their time away from more pressing responsibilities, and by making medical procedures safer and less costly for the patient.

2- Automotive production: as machines are less costly and more efficient than humans, production units in factories now are heavily automated instead of human production.

3- Military: as it helps with detecting threats from wide ranges as Radars and further technologies are used to ensure the safety of the country

- Can you identify three potential challenges for a wheeled autonomous robot that would perform a 24h surveillance task in a large facility?

1- robots have no recognition for any unforeseen events.

2- Robots could break down just like any technical device.

3-Robots requires constant updates regarding their tasks and the information required to accomplish these tasks, and this is time consuming for the employing facility.

Sources:

- https://www.healthcare-administration-degree.net/faq/how-are-robots-changing-healthcare/

- https://blog.wecognize.com/blog/2018/04/11/artificial-intelligence-booming-now/

- https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~jxb/IAI/w2.pdf

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_artificial_intelligence

- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/artificial-intelligence/#PhilAI

My Links:

GitHub:

https://github.com/aharqan

Hackerrank:

https://www.hackerrank.com/aharqan

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