In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Bruke Kifle hosts 2024 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award recipient Ilias Diakonikolas, Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he researches the algorithmic foundations of machine learning and statistics. Ilias received the prestigious award for developing the first efficient algorithms for high-dimensional statistical tasks that are also robust, meaning they perform well even when the data significantly deviates from ideal modelling assumptions. His other honors and recognitions include a Sloan Fellowship, the NSF CAREER Award, the best paper award at NeurIPS 2019, and the IBM Research Pat Goldberg Best Paper Award. He authored a textbook titled Algorithmic High-Dimensional Robust Statistics.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Bruke Kifle hosts ACM Distinguished Member Cecilia Aragon, Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering and Director of the Human-Centered Data Science Lab at the University of Washington (UW). She is the co-inventor (with Raimund Seidel) of the treap data structure, a binary search tree in which each node has both a key and a priority. She is also known for her work in data-intensive science and visual analytics of very large data sets, for which she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2008. Prior to her appointment at UW, she was a computer scientist and data scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and NASA Ames Research Center, and before that, an airshow and test pilot, entrepreneur, and member of the United States Aerobatic Team. She is a co-founder of Latinas in Computing.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Bruke Kifle hosts 2024 ACM Prize in Computing recipient Torsten Hoefler, a Professor of Computer Science at ETH Zurich (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), where he serves as Director of the Scalable Parallel Computing Laboratory. He is also the Chief Architect for AI and Machine Learning at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). His honors include the Max Planck-Humboldt Medal, an award for outstanding mid-career scientists; the IEEE CS Sidney Fernbach Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the application of high-performance computers; and the ACM Gordon Bell Prize, which recognizes outstanding achievement in high-performance computing. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences (Academia Europaea), a Fellow of IEEE, and a Fellow of ACM.

In the interview, Torsten reminisces on early interest with multiple computers to solve problems faster and on building large cluster systems in graduate school that were later turned into supercomputers. He also delves into high-performance computing (HPC) and its central role in simulation and modeling across all modern sciences. Bruke and Torsten cover the various requirements that power HPC, the intersection of HPC and recent innovations in AI, and his key contributions in popularizing 3D parallelism for training AI models. Torsten highlights challenges, such as AI’s propensity to cheat, as well as the promise of turning reasoning models into scientific collaborators. He also offers advice to young researchers on balancing academic learning with industry exposure.

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In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Bruke Kifle hosts 2024 ACM Athena Lecturer and ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award recipient Maja Matarić, the Chan Soon-Shiong Chaired and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California (USC), and a Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind. Maja is a roboticist and AI researcher known for her work in human-robot interaction for socially assistive robotics, a field she pioneered. She is the founding director of the USC Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center and co-director of the USC Robotics Research Lab. Maja is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AMACAD), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), IEEE, AAAI, and ACM. She received the US Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) from President Obama in 2011. She also received the Okawa Foundation, NSF Career, the MIT TR35 Innovation, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career, and the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Innovation Awards, among others, and is an ACM Distinguished Lecturer. She is featured in the documentary movie Me & Isaac Newton.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Rashmi Mohan hosts ACM Fellow and 2016 ACM Software System Award recipient Alfred Spector, Professor of Practice in the MIT EECS Department. He was previously CTO of Two Sigma Investments, and before that Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives at Google. Alfred played a key role in developing the Andrew File System (AFS), a breakthrough in distributed computing that later became a commercial venture. He is also known for coining the term “CS + X.” He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Hertz Foundation, and National Academy of Engineering, and recipient of the IEEE Kanai Award for Distributed Computing.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Rashmi Mohan hosts Henrique Malvar, a signal processing researcher at Microsoft Research (Emeritus). He spent more than 25 years at Microsoft as a distinguished engineer and chief scientist, leading the Redmond, Washington lab (managing more than 350 researchers). At Microsoft, he contributed to the development of audio coding and digital rights management for the Windows Media Audio, Windows Media Video, and to image compression technologies, such as HD Photo/JPEG XR formats and the RemoteFX bitmap compression, as well as to a variety of tools for signal analysis and synthesis. Henrique is also an Affiliate Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Washington and a member of the National Academy of Engineers. He has published over 180 articles, has been issued over 120 patents, and has been the recipient for countless awards for his service.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, our special guest host Scott Hanselman (of The Hanselminutes Podcast) welcomes Kate Kallot, founder and CEO of Amini, an impact-driven AI company based in Nairobi, which focuses on the critical issue of data scarcity in Africa and its implications for AI development. Before Amini, her career spanned leadership positions at global tech companies, including NVIDIA, where she led global developer relations and expansion into emerging markets, and Arm, where she was a pivotal figure in the Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML) movement. At Intel, she led the development of the world’s first AI development kit in a USB form factor, the Neural Compute Stick, bringing computer vision and Al to IoT and edge devices to millions for the first time. Kate is a recognized expert and influencer in the AI field, advising international organizations and governments on the potential and challenges of AI for good. Her work has been recognized by TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, the World Economic Forum as a Tech Pioneer, and One Young World as Entrepreneur of the Year 2024. A trusted voice in global AI policy and digital equity, Kate serves as Vice Chair of the ICC Global Environmental and Energy Commission and is a member of EY’s Global AI Advisory Council.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, Rashmi Mohan hosts ACM Fellow Michael J. Freedman, Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University and co-Founder and CTO of Timescale. Michael’s research interests are in distributed systems, networking, and security. Over the course of his student and professional career, he designed and operated the Coral Content Distribution Network, a peer-to-peer content distribution network; co-founded (with Martin Casado) Illuminics Systems, an IP analytics company; and designed TimescaleDB and JetStream. His many honors and recognitions include the 2018 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, our special guest host Scott Hanselman (of The Hanselminutes Podcast) welcomes ACM Fellow Peter Lee, President of Microsoft Research. As leader of Microsoft Research, Peter incubates new research-powered products and lines of business in areas such as AI, computing foundations, health, and life sciences. Before Microsoft, he established a new technology office that created operational capabilities in ML, data science, and computational social science at DARPA, and before that he was head of the CS department at CMU. Peter served on President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity and has testified before both the US House Science and Technology Committee and the US Senate Commerce Committee. He coauthored the bestselling book The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond. In 2024, he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in health and life sciences.

In the interview, Peter reflects on his 40+ years in computer science, from working on PDP-11s and Commodore Amigas to modern AI advancements. He highlights how modern technologies, built on decades of research, have become indispensable. He also talks about his healthcare journey, including work that earned him election to the National Academy of Medicine, and the potential (and limitations) of AI in medicine. Peter and Scott touch on the impact of LLMs, the lack of ethics education in traditional CS curricula, the challenges posed by growing AI complexity. Peter also highlights some important Microsoft Research work in AI for Science and Quantum Computing.

In this episode of ACM ByteCast, our special guest host Scott Hanselman (of The Hanselminutes Podcast) welcomes Mary Lou Jepsen, CEO and Founder of Openwater, a technical executive and inventor in the fields of display, imaging, and computer hardware with about 300 patents published or issued to her name. She founded and led two moonshots at Google X and was later an executive at Facebook/Oculus VR. Prior to this, she was a professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she co-founded and was the first CTO of One Laptop per Child (OLPC), and later founded Pixel Qi in Taipei, Taiwan, focused on the design and manufacture of displays. Jepsen has been named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine (“Time 100”), CNN’s top “10 thinkers” in science and technology and has won numerous awards numerous from professional societies in the fields of optics, display, and electronics. She’s a frequent keynote speaker, has given two highly viewed TED talks, and is frequently featured in top global press publications.