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IBM’s Watson system starts Jeopardy! competition today

By admin, on February 14th, 2011%

The long-awaited day of reckoning has arrived for IBM’s Jeopardy!-playing computer named “Watson”. Beginning tonight (14 Feb 2011) in North America, Watson will compete on the quiz show Jeopardy! against legendary champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

Ken Jennings broke an all-time Jeopardy! record with 74 consecutive wins in 2004. Brad Rutter has never . . . → Read More: IBM’s Watson system starts Jeopardy! competition today

Researchers find fractal structure to partition function

By admin, on January 28th, 2011%

Researchers from Emory University, the University of Wisconsin Madison, Yale, and the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany have discovered that partition numbers behave like fractals, possessing an infinitely-repeating structure.

The partition number P(N) of an integer N is the number of distinct ways in which N can be written as a sum of positive . . . → Read More: Researchers find fractal structure to partition function

IBM’s Watson Defeats Jeopardy champs in trial round

By admin, on January 13th, 2011%

As we mentioned in an earlier Blog, the US television show Jeopardy! has agreed to host a showdown between a new question-answering computer system developed by IBM and two former Jeopardy! champions. The new system, named “Watson” by IBM, accepts input in the form of natural English inquiries, and then responds with its best determination . . . → Read More: IBM’s Watson Defeats Jeopardy champs in trial round

Selected papers of Jonathan Borwein and Peter Borwein

By admin, on December 20th, 2010%

A selection of papers authored (or co-authored) by Jonathan Borwein and Peter Borwein has been published by PSIpress. The selection includes several papers of significant historical interest:

Jonathan Borwein and Peter Borwein, Experimental and computational mathematics: Selected writings, PSIpress, Portland, OR, 2010.

Here is a brief synopsis, from the publisher’s website:

A quiet revolution in . . . → Read More: Selected papers of Jonathan Borwein and Peter Borwein

German edition of The Computer as Crucible

By admin, on December 20th, 2010%

A German translation of The Computer as Crucible, which was co-authored by one of the present bloggers, has been published by Springer-Verlag. Here is a synopsis of the English edition:

Keith Devlin and Jonathan Borwein, two well-known mathematicians with expertise in different mathematical specialties but with a common interest in experimentation in mathematics, have joined . . . → Read More: German edition of The Computer as Crucible

New book on performance science

By David H Bailey, on December 20th, 2010%

A book on techniques for tuning the performance of large scientific computations has just been published by one of the present bloggers:

David H. Bailey, Robert F. Lucas and Samuel W. Williams, “Performance Tuning of Scientific Applications,” CRC Press (Taylor and Francis Group), Boca Raton, FL, 2011. Amazon.com.

Here is the press synopsis:

With contributions . . . → Read More: New book on performance science

IBM’s Watson to compete on Jeopardy! with Jennings with Rutter

By admin, on December 14th, 2010%

As we mentioned in an earlier Blog post, IBM has been developing a state-of-the-art question-answering computer system, named “Watson” (for Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM).

The basic computer hardware is a module from IBM’s “BlueGene” series, which, in the configuration used for this research project, would cost somewhat over $1,000,000. The software . . . → Read More: IBM’s Watson to compete on Jeopardy! with Jennings with Rutter

Ancient math puzzles in 3600-year-old Egyptian papyrus

By admin, on December 6th, 2010%

Many are familiar with the old and amusing puzzle “As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives…” Recently scholars examining the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (c. 1650 BCE) were started to find a surprisingly similar version: Seven houses have seven cats that each eat seven mice that each eat seven . . . → Read More: Ancient math puzzles in 3600-year-old Egyptian papyrus

NYU’s treasure of Babylonian mathematics

By admin, on November 26th, 2010%

Those readers in the New York City area might like to pay a visit to NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. Its museum is currently displaying an exhibit of Babylonian mathematical artifacts, gleaned from the collections of Columbia University, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, dated from 1900 to 1700 BCE. The . . . → Read More: NYU’s treasure of Babylonian mathematics

What’s next in science?

By David H Bailey, on November 9th, 2010%

On 9 Nov 2010, the New York Times ran an interesting online feature “What’s Next in Science?”. This series of article includes predictions from a number of scientists in different fields as to what they believe will be the most significant developments of the next few years. One of these articles is by Steven Strogatz . . . → Read More: What’s next in science?

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