Randy Pausch's lecture in University of Virginia

Randy Pausch is a virtual reality pioneer, human-computer interaction researcher, co-founder of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center. He was the professor at CMU in Pittsburg.

5 points that i really liked about the lecture

1. If you have bunch of things to do, start with the ugliest one.

2. It is really crucial to have your desk clear.

3. To have a file system, where you can put all your papers.

4. Call people before something important as lunch or meeting.

5. The important thing about time management is to find your creative time and defend it ruthlessly.

Research on complexity theory

1. What is a decision problem? Im computational complexity theory, decision problem is a problem that p>can be responded as YES or NO depending on input variables.

2. What does it mean for a decision problem to be decidable? A problem is said to be Decidable if we can always construct a corresponding algorithm that can answer the problem correctly.

3. What is the class P? What is the class NP? P class stands for Polynomial time. It is a class in computational complexity that is tractable and easy to find NP class stands for Non-deterministic Polynomial Time. The solutions of the NP class are hard to find but the solutions are easy to verify
4. What is the intuitive meaning of the “P versus NP” question? The meaning of P versus NP is that for every NP complexity problems, there exists P complexity solutions.

5. If you resolve the P versus NP question, how much richer will you be? As one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems, you will get 1000000$ richer than you are now.

Cloud Computing

1. What is Big Data? Big data refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software.

2. What is cloud computing? Cloud Computing means storing and accessing the data and programs on remote servers that are hosted on the internet instead of the computer's hard drive or local server.

3. Is cloud computing a novel technology per se or an amalgamation of several traditional technologies?

Actually, Cloud Computing is linked with novel business models, however, it is the amalgamation of several technologies such as Virtualization, Grid Computing and etc.

4. What are the 3 major cloud computing service models? There are 3 main models: SaaS, IaaS, PaaS.

5. Name at least 3 real-life problems that cloud computing can help solve them. There are more than several problems that CC can solve, but the main are:
It reduces overhead expenditures on testing, integration, and maintenance.

It scales the processes up and down according to needs

It increases the flexibility of the system(s) with the help of sophisticated solutions that cloud providers are steadily developing

6. What is the economic/business model of cloud computing? It is the study of cloud computing's costs and benefits and the economic principles that underpin them.

Cyber Security

1. In 2016, QNB suffered from a massive data leak. Around 1,4 GB of information was posted online on the whistleblower website Cryptome. There are almost 15,500 documents with bank corporate files and customer information in clear text. There are passwords, credit card numbers, expiration dates, PINs, credit holder names, account details, credit limits, etc.

2. In 2012, RasGas faced a virus attack that shut down their office computers. They had to isolate their computers from the web to stop the damage. Their website and corporate email fell down as well. The attack did not stop crucial processes like gas pumping but it did shut down the company's IT processes for several days.
It is believed to be a part of the big attack on energy companies. In 2012, Saudi, Qatari, and American companies faced the Shamoon virus which supposedly comes from Iran. It wipes out hard drives and makes computers inoperable. RasGas suffered the least from the attack.

Programming Languages

1. Why did we move from punch cards to programming languages? What does that tell you about the purpose of programming languages? In past, punched cards or Hollerith cards, were used widely, but people stopped using them because there was overusage of paper and those cards could be used only once. Also, in the past people could run only one program at a time which could be monopolized by rich people. However, now, programming languages let every individual run and test their own piece of code.

2. There are hundreds of different programming languages out there. Why do you think we need so many? Programming languages were created to every persons' view. Different people preffered different style of naming functions or readability and bunch of other reasons. Also, different programming languages can be used for variety of platforms as: C# --> Gaming; Swift --> iOS platform; Kotlin --> Android

3. What are some drawbacks of a programming language you use? How would you like it to be different? Think of specific examples. In my opinion, the Swift programming language is one of the best languages I know so far. It is very convinient and the most readable syntax among all languages. I don't have any suggestions to this programming language.

4. If you were going to create a new programming language, how would you start? What do you need to define?

In my opinion, everything starts with WHY. At first I would define whether people indeed need changes that i want to fix by my programming language.

Robotics and AI

1. How do you define AI? Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Specific applications of AI include expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision.

2. Can you name at least three different sub-fields of AI? The sub-fields of AI are: ML, DL and Expert Systems.

3. AI has been around since about 70 years so far. Why is it booming right now? The raise of AI started due to the raise of the data, and technologies that can provide tools to work with huge volumes of data and complex algorithms.

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

5. Three applications are: robot welding, painting and assembly. The reaons why they are used widely is that it improves the safety of workers from arc burn and inhaling hazardous fumes; it increases the quality and consistency of the product; eliminates tedious and tiresome tasks, increases output and reduce operational costs.

Computational biology

1. What is a genome/DNA and why is it important to know? Your genome is your complete set of DNA - all the genetic instructions for you to grow, develop and function. It is important to know because only this way we can understand the nature of our physiology.

2. Does CS have a significant role to play in studying why we are tall, organized, athletic, or healthy? With emerging of new technology, the techniques used to tackle diseases raised. Now with the help of huge amount of data we can identify the high-risk individuals and tailor health interventions and recommendations.

3. What are some of the important questions in biology and medicine that can be addressed with computer science? Nowadays, computers extremely helpful with prediction. In different spheres of medicine specifically in medical decision - making.

4. Is it enough to study humans and the human genome? Usually, study helps us to earch for genes linked to different types of disease. understand inherited disorders and their treatment. trace human migration patterns from the past.

5. Is the industry interested in computational biology, or is it largely academic research? Computational biology is likely to become a part of routine health care in the future and its applications are not limited to research and drug discovery.