Computing Reviews News

Featured Reviewer: André Mariën

Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our June featured reviewer, André Mariën. 

Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) Infrastructure as code, software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and so on, i.e., freedom for the people.

Q) If you weren't working in the computer field, what would you be doing instead?

A) I would be an architect, constructing something tangible.

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) That is actually about now, so it is easy to “predict.”

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) Leonardo da Vinci, an impossibly creative individual with diverse interests.

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A) Music from the 60s and 70s.

--

Click here to read one of Andre Mariën’s reviews.

Featured Reviewer: S. Ramakrishnan

Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our May featured reviewer, S. Ramakrishnan. 

Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) It is difficult to choose just one among many, so here are two: processor speed and smartphones.

Q) If you weren't working in the computer field, what would you be doing instead?

A) Quite an interesting question. I would likely be a mathematics teacher in schools.

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) Robots everywhere, with most roles currently done by humans done by robots. I am working on machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and emotion recognition.

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) Mahatma Gandhi, who united a diverse India and used two highly valuable principles, namely truth and non-violence, to get freedom.

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A) Carnatic music and melody songs in Tamil.

--

Click here to read one of Dr. Ramakrishnan’s reviews.

 

Featured Reviewer: M. Sasikumar

Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our April featured reviewer, M. Sasikumar. 

Q) What is the most important thing that has happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) Hard to pinpoint one specific event out of the huge number of strides made in the last decade. In a sense, the biggest game changer has been the phenomenal increase in computing power, including network capacity. This has enabled a lot of old ideas like deep learning to become practical.

Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?

A) Perhaps aeronautical engineering, which was the alternative to computer science I was given when taking admission in engineering. Of course, today, aeronautics is also full of computing!

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) Computing is going through a phase of rapid change, making any prediction hard. One direction I would like to see is accessible programming for ordinary people, just as computing as a technology has evolved. Programming would reach the level of human-to-human communication, with keyboard and mouse and difficult syntax a thing of the past. I have teams working in speech and language technologies, which is one of the emerging approaches to human-computer interaction (HCI). A b brain-computer interface (BCI) is another relevant technology in this direction.

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation in India, for having led a nation to freedom with simplicity, truth, and non-violence as the primary weapons.

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A) Carnatic music.

--

Click here to read one of Dr. Sasikumar’s reviews.

Featured Reviewer: Nancy Eickelmann

Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our March featured reviewer, Nancy Eickelmann. 

Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) This is a two-part question concerning theoretical and applied computer science. Quantum computing in the field of the theoretical, and big data in the field of applied science.

Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?

A) Teaching English literature.

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) On a positive note, information and knowledge of our world will continue to increase and be readily available. On a less positive note, it may be at the cost of individual privacy and freedom.

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) Eleanor of Aquitaine; she lived a long and accomplished life.

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A) Music is like food in that it is of the moment and the mood. 

--

Click here to read one of Nancy’s reviews.

Featured Reviewer: Susan Ferebee

Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our February featured reviewer, Susan Ferebee. 

Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) One of the most important computing advances is edge computing, which solves the need to process data in real time, locally, without transmission across a large network. Edge computing has relevance for big data processing, connected vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and 5G towers, just to name a few.

Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?

A) If I were not working in computer science, I would most like to work in physics, particularly the study of quantum physics. The two fields will begin to overlap as more is understood about quantum physics and quantum computing. Another area of interest I have is neuroscience, and related to that, how computing can replicate neural processes.

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) Computer science will take us further into an ubiquitous, always-connected technological world where lines between our human body and brain will be blurred with our connections to technology, artificial intelligence, and devices. The question then becomes: as artificial intelligence and computing take over much of what our brains work on now, what new challenges will our brains choose to work on?

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) Leonardo DaVinci combined science, art, and engineering, and displayed his wide range of thinking in notebooks, which have helped me develop a thought approach that synthesizes many disciplines.

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A) My favorite type of music is alternative.

--

Click here to read one of Susan’s reviews.

Featured Reviewer: Eugene Callahan

Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our January featured reviewer, Eugene Callahan. 

Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) The spread of Agile and DevOps.

Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?

A) Farming.

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) Prediction is very hard, especially about the future. But I hope our work on easily combining data from different APIs might prove useful to some people.

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) George Berkeley. He brought clarity to a vexing philosophical problem.

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A) Reggae.

--

Click here to read one of Eugene’s recent reviews.

Featured Reviewer: Massimiliano Masi

Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our December featured reviewer, Massimiliano Masi. 

Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) The information technology (IT)/Internet of Things (IoT)/operational technology (OT) convergence. With the advent of so many ubiquitous devices, we are able to give a sense of the physical world to our networks and algorithms that, along with the computing power given by today's cloud environment, could potentially change how we use software. However, this convergence lacks cybersecurity. So many devices are made without even basic cybersecurity measures and thus they can be easily compromised. Even in industrial control systems, this convergence should be seen as positive: for years those systems had a false sense of security since they were air gapped from the Internet, hindering the full exploitation of their potential. Now, since the context is well understood and cybersecurity standards exist, there is nothing that can block the full exploitation of industrial data from cloud computing’s potential.

Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?

A) Farming. Parts of my family were farming in the region of Chianti, in Italy, and I studied agriculture in high school. I quit agricultural studies because I got to know math and computer science, but I still work the field in my spare time.

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) Hard to say. I read Marc Andreessen’s “Why Software Is Eating the World” essay some years ago that stated that all human processes will soon be digitized. However, software contains bugs and bugs cause anomalies to those human processes. Computer scientists will drive us toward a set of techniques that can handle the complexity of maintaining the code implementing everyday activities. The democratization of formal methods, rigorous software architectures, and continuous awareness of how computer science is so pervasive will be the next big things. Recently I have been part of a team studying ways to formalize the design of new IT projects, by proposing a methodology that enables a rigorous procedure to attain security by design. We are continuously improving this methodology to make it as usable as possible.

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) I would say Alan Turing. His studies helped to end World War II, saving so many lives and soldiers. Like many other students, I read his works at university. There I had a professor who was so passionate about him, who made me appreciate Turing's character.  

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A) Bossa nova! I love listening to the compositions of Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, Gilberto Gil, and all the Brazilians who were able to merge their roots with the jazz played in North America, which led to the creation of that unique sound. My favorite guitar player is Irio De Paula, a classical guitarist that I had the opportunity to see live in my hometown. Of course, hard rock from the 90s is also very good listening, which I like to play with my Fender Strat.

--

Click here to read one of Massimiliano’s recent reviews.

Featured Reviewer: Ponmurugarajan Thiyagarajan

Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our November featured reviewer, Ponmurugarajan (Rajan) Thiyagarajan. 

Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) I think that artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most important things to happen in computing. AI is about the development of algorithms and programs to enable machines to perform human-like tasks. AI today can do a variety of things, like detecting fraud, predicting disease outbreaks, automated financial investing, and self-driving cars. I envision a future world powered by AI where humans and machines will coexist like brothers and sisters.  

Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?

A) This is an interesting question. If I were not working in the computer science field, I would be teaching undergraduate and graduate programs on mechanical and industrial engineering.  

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) In another 30 years or so, I hope to see maturing capabilities in the areas of AI, robotics, quantum computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cybersecurity. My contributions include crafting and delivering design-led, human-centered customer experience solutions powered by AI, IoT, and other modern computing technologies.  

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) My favorite historical figure is Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the 26th President of the United States and also the youngest person to serve in this role. He is often ranked as one of the best presidents to date. He was a visionary leader of the progressive movement in his time and championed “Square Deal” domestic policies.  

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A)I enjoy Carnatic, Western, and Hindustani classical music played by Indian musicians such as A. R. Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja.  

--

Click here to read one of Rajan’s recent reviews.

Featured Reviewer: Arturo Ortiz-Tapia

Featured in Five is a monthly section where we pose five questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our October featured reviewer, Arturo Ortiz-Tapia.

Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) As for hardware, I don't think I would be too mistaken if I say the birth of quantum computing. Concerning software, we could mention the massification and ramification not only of cloud storage (Google Drive, Zenodo) but also of cloud computing (take Wolfram Alpha 2009, Symbolab, and GeoGebra 2011; GeoGebra existed before, but it started working as cloud computing in 2011), cloud research sharing, and question-answer networks (Overleaf, Stack Exchange, Overflow, Quora, and ResearchGate), just to give some examples that roughly fall within the decade range.

Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?

A) Something between what Umberto Eco, Noah Chomsky, Edward Sapir, and Benjamin Lee Whorf researched. In a way, I would still be working to understand cognition and artificial intelligence.

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) Quite possibly, computer science will have worked with cognition sciences and quantum theories to advance human evolution itself. Humans will have developed the capacity to entangle at will with the collective consciousness not only of humanity, but with the awareness of information stored in the quantum field of the universe in more dimensions than we currently perceive, thus converting people into qubits, or more than one qubit per person.

I have been working with a team of experimental scientists about the connection between human awareness and quantum entanglement, and the results thus far look quite promising. Theoretically there have been advances in several disciplines that interact with computer science, like the relationship of Gödel's incompleteness theorem and the possible endless discovery of order in the universe (according to a statement by Stephen W. Hawking). The results have been published as a preprint in ResearchGate and a more detailed book is forthcoming.

I have also been working on some properties of Lucas sequences and their relationship with Julia sets through a finite set of points in the complex plane, resembling some parts of the geometrical aspect of the Mandelbrot set. One of those points is the golden ratio, and the other points follow a similar structure. At this point it is still a result in pure mathematics, but the resemblance of that set of points with the Mandelbrot set, and the fact that the golden ratio is involved, makes me think that fractals, through computer science, may still deliver many fruits when it comes to understanding (and even perceiving) the complexity of the universe. 

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) It is between Hypatia and Sofya Kovalevskaya. Hypatia because of her love of mathematics, and while I know it has been a bit romanticized, it is sort of true that she died defending the works of Euclid, among others. Kovalevskaya also has a romantic component—for example, she died when she was 41, which forces me to acknowledge that I am already older than that. But on a more serious note, it is because she worked in subjects that I have worked on myself for a significant portion of my life.

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A) Depending on my mood, I listen to just about everything, from Shamanic songs to hip hop, crossing over to Indian sitar and African kalimba music, and of course John Williams and Hans Zimmer film scores. However, the only music I can listen to when I am eating or working peacefully comes from the Baroque or Romantic periods, more or less. Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are very prominent, always. I reserve jazz for when I’m drinking coffee in a nice place, reading the latest news in mathematics, or talking to friends.

--

Click here to read one of Arturo’s recent reviews.

Featured Reviewer: Xiannong Meng

Each month we pose questions to a Computing Reviews featured reviewer. Here are the responses from our September featured reviewer, Xiannong Meng.

Q) What is the most important thing that's happened in computing in the past 10 years?

A) I think the most important thing that has happened in computing in the past 10 years is the pervasive use of computing technology in our everyday life, including e-commerce, social media, and data analytics, among others. For computing itself, I'd say cloud computing (in all its forms) has been the most important thing.

Q) If you weren't working in the computer science field, what would you be doing instead?

A) I enjoy working with students. So, if I were not in the computer science field, I'd probably teach math as I have some basic training in this field. If I had complete financial freedom, I'd probably just read and listen to music.

Q) By the end of your career, where do you think computer science will have taken us? What are you working on that might contribute toward that?

A) I think computing will become more "humane." Machines of all forms, including the Internet and the software on them, will interact with and serve humans in more efficient and effective ways. As an educator, I encourage my students to keep an open mind and help computing evolve in this direction.

Q) Who is your favorite historical figure? Why?

A) Out of all the biographies and autobiographies I have read, which isn't too many, I like Harry Truman the most. He is less well known than FDR, though his influence is comparable.

During his six years in office, he directed, participated in, and experienced such historical events as the use of the atomic bomb, the creation of the United Nations (UN), the recognition of Israel, the Berlin Airlift and the Marshall Plan, Churchill’s speech in Truman’s hometown (a precursor to the Cold War), the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), withdrawing from mainland China in 1949, and committing troops to the Korean War while limiting the scale of the war.

Domestically, he was the first president to recommend Medicare—he even proposed “Medicare for All” while in office. He was a “common man” who worked for the common American.

Q) What is your favorite type of music?

A) I like two types of music: classical and easy listening. Classical music gives us inspiration, while easy listening music lets us relax after work.

--

Click here to read one of Xiannong’s highlighted reviews.