#148 – Charles Isbell and Michael Littman: Machine Learning and Education

Charles Isbell is the Dean of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. Michael Littman is a computer scientist at Brown University. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

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EPISODE LINKS:

Charles's Twitter: https://twitter.com/isbellHFh

Charles's Website: https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~isbell/

Michael's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mlittmancs

Michael's Website: https://www.littmania.com/

Michael's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/mlittman

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OUTLINE:

Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) - Introduction

(07:51) - Is machine learning just statistics?

(12:14) - NeurIPS vs ICML

(14:30) - Data is more important than algorithm

(20:14) - The role of hardship in education

(28:57) - How Charles and Michael met

(33:30) - Key to success: never be satisfied

(36:47) - Bell Labs

(48:15) - Teaching machine learning

(58:25) - Westworld and Ex Machina

(1:06:24) - Simulation

(1:13:14) - The college experience in the times of COVID

(1:41:52) - Advice for young people

(1:48:44) - How to learn to program

(2:00:07) - Friendship