September 05, 2007

Tiny experiments

Given my fondness for Breakfast Experiments™, I was intrigued to see that Jon Bentley (of Programming Pearls fame) is giving a talk tomorrow afternoon, in the Murray Hill Mathematical and Algorithmic Sciences Colloquium series, on the topic "Tiny Experiments for Computing and Life":

Computing experiments come in all sizes. A jumbo testbed for the Traveling Salesman Problem, for instance, can take years to build,  and additional years can be spent designing and running insightful experiments. This talk concentrates on tiny computing experiments  that can be conducted in a few minutes. Such experiments include  parameter estimation, hypothesis testing, determining functional  forms, and conducting "horse races". This talk also describes how  tiny "Math, Science and Engineering" can be done in one's head or  on the back of the proverbial envelope, and shows how to apply it  to computing problems and problems in everyday life.

Unfortunately I'm scheduled to teach here in Philly at the same time, so I'll have to use my imagination.

Posted by Mark Liberman at September 5, 2007 09:47 AM