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When: Tuesday, October 09, 4:00 p.m.

Where: Rashid Auditorium
4401 Gates and Hillman Centers

Lenore Blum,
Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science
Computer Science Department
Carnegie Mellon

SCS Special Talk

Abstract:
Alan Turing and the Other Theory of Computation

In this centenary of Alan Turing’s birth, literally hundreds of conferences around the world are celebrating Turing’s impact not only on the history of computer science and artificial intelligence, but also in seemingly diverse areas such as the chemical basis of morphogenesis and developmental biology.

Every student of computer science is keenly aware of Alan Turing’s fundamental role in the theory of computation, rooted in logic and discrete mathematics (emanating from his famous 1937 paper). But did you know about Turing’s fundamental role in the “other theory of computation,” rooted in numerical analysis and continuous mathematics?

In this talk I recognize Alan Turing's work in the foundations of numerical computation (emanating from his 1948 paper), its influence in complexity theory today, and how it provides a unifying concept for the two major traditions of the Theory of Computation.

***

Lenore Blum is Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. She is also the Founding Director of Project Olympus, an innovation center whose aim is to bridge the gap between cutting-edge university research/innovation and economy-promoting commercialization for the benefit of our communities.

Blum's research, from her early work in model theory and differential fields (logic and algebra) to her more recent work in developing a theory of computation and complexity over the real numbers (mathematics and computer science), has focused on merging seemingly unrelated areas. In 1989, she, along with Steve Smale and Mike Shub, introduced a theory of computation and complexity over an arbitrary ring or field R that has been widely adopted by the foundations of computational mathematics community. This research also involves problems that appear in the interface between the discrete and the continuous. In June 2012, she was a keynote speaker at the Turing Centenary Conference in Cambridge, England.

Blum is also well known for her work on increasing the participation of women in STEM fields. She was one of the founders of the Association for Women in Mathematics, the Expanding Your Horizons Network, Women@SCS and the CS4HS workshops. In 2004 she received the US Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring and in 2009 she received the Carnegie Science Catalyst Award recognizing her work targeting high-tech talent to promote economic growth in the Pittsburgh region and for increasing the participation of women in computer science. More recently she was recognized on the list of “Famous Women in Computer Science” compiled by the Anita Borg Center for Women and Technology.

Blum received her Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT. Prior to that she took the first ever computer science course on the planet, taught by Alan Perlis (the first Turing Award winner) at Carnegie Tech.

In Celebration of Alan Turing's 100th Birthday

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