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# Blog Profile / The Geomblog

URL : http://geomblog.blogspot.com/ Academics / Mathematics 407 1.5 March 17, 2008

## Blog Post Archive

### On GPU algorithms

Lance talks about GPU algorithms in his latest post: The theory community hasn't seem to catch on yet. There should be some nice theoretical model that captures the vector and other operations of a GPGPU and then we should search for algorithms that make the best use of the hardware. Show More Summary

### Free, Freemium, and Paid

There was a time when I'd bridle at the idea of having to pay for software or services. But I browse the iTunes app store now, and see people pleading to have the chance to pay for an app that they like, so that the authors won't stop updating it. Show More Summary

### The SIGACT CG column

As you might have just discovered, I'm the second half of the two-headed monster that's taken over the SIGACT Geometry Column after Joe O'Rourke stepped down (Adrian Dumitrescu, who hopefully does not mind being referred to as the head of a monster, is the other half). Show More Summary

### Data analysis, interpretation and explanations

There was a recent data-related kerfuffle between the New York Times and the makers of the Tesla electric car. If you haven't read the articles, (and the NYT public editor's post on this has good links), the crude summary is this: NYT...Show More Summary

### TCS+ hangout on the TSP polytope.

+Thomas Vidick and the folks at the +TCS+ community have started a new experiment in G+ hangout talks. The first talk in this series was by Ronald de Wolf on the STOC 2012 paper that showed that there was no polynomial-sized lifted representation of the TSP polytope. Overall, it was a very pleasant experience. Show More Summary

### Accountability in Data Mining: A new seminar

Glencora Borradaile makes a number of interesting points about the implications of Aaron Swartz's life and work for us academic computer scientists. As computer science academics we are in a very powerful position. We are trusted with shaping the next generation that will make very important decisions that will have far-reaching social implications. Show More Summary

### A sampling gem: sampling from $\ell_p$ balls.

A while back, I had written about uniform sampling from the $d$-simplex. In brief, sample exponentially distributed random variables, and normalize them. Note that the simplex is one piece of the $d$-dimensional $\ell_1$ unit sphere. I...Show More Summary

### LEGO and math teaching

I was discussing Paul Tough's book with my wife yesterday at breakfast, and we somehow got onto my pet peeve: the mechanical way in which math is taught in schools, and how math gets reduced to arithmetic and counting. Of course theShow More Summary

### ICERM and Simons postdocs

Two upcoming TCS postdoc deadlines: ICERM Program on Network Science and Graph Algorithms This is a program out of Brown organized by Kelner, Klein, Mathieu, Shmoys and Upfal. It sounds quite fascinating if you're doing anything with graph data and spectral analysis. Show More Summary

If you haven't been following my live-tweets at the SODA business meeting, here's a summary of the unusually quiet meeting: Attendance at the conference was 311, which is quite low, but is a local high for New Orleans (third time in the last 10 years). 135 papers were accepted out of a net 459 submissions. Show More Summary

### SODA 2013: Part 3/n

I just attended Valerie King's talk on her paper with Bruce Kapron and Ben Mountjoy that does dynamic connectivity in worst-case polylog time (randomized). This paper received a Best Paper award (along with the Grohe et al paper on graph...Show More Summary

### SODA 2013: Part 2/n

My previous post is here. Day 2 of SODA, and the tenth time I've been asked "are you chairing all the sessions" ? No, just that many of my PC colleagues didn't (or couldn't) show up :), so those of us who did are doing more lifting.Show More Summary

### SODA 2013, Part I/n

On twitter, it's common to post longer thoughts in 140 character bursts. If you don't know how long the thought will be, you label them as 1/n, 2/n, and so on, so as not to exceed an arbitrary limit, but also imply that there is a finite limit. So we're back in the Big Easy for SODA. Show More Summary

### A SODA announcement, and a happy new year !

While you're all recovering from New Year's eve revelries, here's an important note from the ALENEX/ANALCO organizers regarding the debauchery in New Orleans otherwise known as SODA: Dear SODA attendees,We want to make sure that you are aware of a change in the format of SODA/ALENEX/ANALCO. Show More Summary

### NIPS II: Deep Learning and the evolution of data models

(tl;dr: some rambles and musings on deep learning and data, as I attempt to sort out in my head what this all means) Over the years, as we've engaged with "big data" more and more, the way we construct mental models of data has changed. Show More Summary

### NIPS ruminations I

(tl;dr a bucket load of trends/papers that I found interesting at the conference) I just returned from NIPS in Lake Tahoe. For those not in the know, NIPS is one of the premier machine learning conferences, and has been growing rapidly over the last few years. Show More Summary

### Data, Dimensions and Geometry oh my !

The following is a summary of a talk I gave to undergraduates interested in going on to graduate school. It's targeted at the layperson, and tries to convey a sense of the interplay between data mining and geometry. I gave this talkShow More Summary

### On the elections, Nate Silver, and lessons for data mining

One interesting side story from this election has been the intense focus on Nate Silver's election predictions, and the matter of aggregate polling statistics. While there's certainly a partisan element to much of the discussion, there's...Show More Summary

### On why I'm excited about "big data"

I was in Aarhus recently for a MADALGO workshop on large-scale parallel and distributed models, where I did a sequence of lectures on GPU algorithms. I was briefly interviewed by a university reporter for an article, and did a little...Show More Summary

### We're hiring FIVE (count 'em, FIVE) faculty this year.

We had an incredible hiring season two years ago, making seven offers and hiring seven new faculty. And now we're doing it again ! Our department is looking to hire five new faculty (at least four are at the assistant professor level). Show More Summary

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