Hotashi - Jack’s Blog

This time that we are currently living in will be the most exciting time for computer scientists. We are living the age where a great number of the fathers of computer science are still living, where the very foundations of computer science are still being laid. Just over a year ago, I was privileged with an opportunity to sit in on a special lecture given by Stephen Cook — who formalized the notion of NP-completeness in his 1971 paper, “The Complexity of Theorem Proving Procedures.” Imagine telling future generations of CSers how you were living in the time when a talented computer scientist proved that “P != NP.” Imagine if one of your professors have a major breakthrough in his field of research in the next few years. Maybe it might be one of your old classmates who becomes immortalized in the field of computer science. Or perhaps it would be your work that generations upon generations of new computer scientists will need to study.

(more…)