Questions for future Presentations

These are my answers

Presentation 1: Giselle Reis - Programming Languages

  1. Why did we move from punch cards to programming languages? What does that tell you about the purpose of programming languages?
    2. Punch cards were slow, error-prone and very limited in what they can do and also very hard to use and understand. In comparison to programming languages which are more user-friendly and easier to understand and use, they are also more powerful and can do a lot more. This shows us that the purpose of programming languages is to make programming easier, faster and more efficient.
  2. There are hundreds of different programming languages out there. Why do you think we need so many?
    3. Each programming has a different purpose and is designed to solve different problems. Some are better for things other programming languages are not. Plus every programming language has its own strenghts and weaknesses. So we need multiple programming languages to be able to choose the right one for each task and to be able to solve different problems.
  3. What are some drawbacks of a programming language you use? How would you like it to be different? Think of specific examples.
    4. From what I read and understood, Python is a very good programming language, but it has some drawbacks. One of them is that it is not the fastest programming language out there, which can be a problem for some applications that require high performance. Another drawback is that it is not the best programming language for mobile development, which can be a problem for some developers who want to create mobile applications. I would like it to be faster and more efficient. But this is not needed because that is why we have a lot of programming languages, each has their strenghts and weaknesses.
  4. If you were going to create a new programming language, how would you start? What do you need to define?
    5. I would start by defining the purpose of the programming language and what I will use it for, then the syntax and after that multiple things I still don't know for now.
  5. Links:
    6. https://spectrum.ieee.org/from-punch-cards-to-python ......... https://stackoverflow.blog/2015/07/29/why-are-there-so-many-programming-languages/ ......... https://www.python.org/doc/essays/comparisons/

Presentation 2: Christos Kapoutsis - Theory of Computation

  1. What is a decision problem?
    2. A decision problem is a problem where the answer can only be Yes or No. For example, “Is 17 a prime number?” is a decision problem because the answer is either Yes or No. Similarly, “Does this graph contain a path from A to B?” is also a decision problem.
  2. What does it mean for a decision problem to be decidable?
    3. A decision problem is decidable if there is an algorithm that can correctly answer Yes or No for every possible input and always eventually stop. In other words, there is a guaranteed method for solving the problem that never gets stuck running forever.
  3. What is the class P? What is the class NP?
    4. The class P consists of decision problems that can be solved efficiently, meaning there is an algorithm that solves them in polynomial time, such as O(n), O(n^2), or O(n^3). The class NP consists of decision problems for which a proposed solution can be verified efficiently in polynomial time. Therefore, P is roughly about problems that can be solved quickly, while NP is about problems whose solutions can be checked quickly.
  4. What is the intuitive meaning of the “P versus NP” question?
    5. The P versus NP question asks whether every problem whose solution can be checked quickly can also be solved quickly. In other words, it asks whether finding a solution is fundamentally harder than verifying a solution. Mathematicians and computer scientists currently do not know whether P = NP or P != NP, although most believe that P != NP
  5. If you resolve the P versus NP question, how much richer will you be?
    6. If you correctly resolve the P versus NP problem, you could receive $1 million, because it is one of the Clay Mathematics Institute’s Millennium Prize Problems. You would also become very famous in mathematics and computer science, assuming your proof was rigorously verified and accepted.
  6. Links:
    7. https://www.claymath.org/millennium/p-vs-np/ ......... https://www.claymath.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MPPc.pdf ......... https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/computability/

Presentation 3: Amy Melniczuk - Human Computer Interaction

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Presentation 4: Speaker TBA

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Presentation 5: Gianni Di Caro - Robotics and AI

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Presentation 6: Bilal Taha

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