Logan Kugler

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Articles

Computer Science Under Trump

1 month ago | cacm.acm.org | Logan Kugler |Shuchi Grover |Sandrine Ceurstemont |Alex Vakulov

In November 2024, voters in the U.S. elected Donald Trump to a second, non-consecutive term as the nation’s 47th President. Given U.S. prominence in the world, and the strong executive powers of the President, Trump and his administration will have a massive impact on everything from national security to the economy to the tenor of civic discourse—both inside and outside America. One area of impact being watched especially closely by policy experts: computer science.
Why Can’t We Predict Earthquakes?

2 months ago | cacm.acm.org | Logan Kugler |Sam Greengard |Orit Hazzan

Earthquakes are among the deadliest natural disasters that strike human societies. Major quakes in the last decade alone have killed tens of thousands of people, including an earthquake in 2023 on the Turkey-Syria border that alone resulted in 50,000 deaths. Among the most difficult problems in seismology, the study of earthquakes, is not just dealing with the causes and effects of earthquakes; it’s predicting when they will hit in the first place.
Integration of Music and Art in a Science and Engineering-Based University

Dec 10, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Orit Wolf |Orit Hazzan |Logan Kugler |Sam Greengard

“I would argue that science is actually a type of art. To do science, you have to be creative, you have to blend different ideas, you have to communicate those ideas by creating something. In many ways that’s what artists do.”—Callie Chappell, Stanford University in Nature Careers Podcasts with Julie Gould, December 8th, 2023. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03394-8Music, science, and engineering are seemingly distant disciplines that stand apart as separate discrete, divergent entities.
Advanced Machine Learning Algorithms for HR Analytics

Dec 5, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Alex Tray |Herbert Bruderer |Ted Selker |Logan Kugler

In the past few years, HR has seen a significant transformation driven by the rise of machine learning tools and technology.1 These tools extract insights, patterns, and predict trends from massive amounts of data. HR has now shifted from traditional methods to data-driven approaches for better workplace management, productivity, and aligning HR strategies with larger business goals.
On Program Synthesis and Large Language Models

Dec 4, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Herbert Bruderer |Ted Selker |Logan Kugler

Much has been made of the abilities of the new developments in machine intelligence and in particular of what chatbots such as ChatGPT that are based on large language models (LLMs) are capable of. While these new pieces of software are impressive when it comes to generating text, some people in the computing community take this observation much further and, in my opinion, much too far. They claim programming will be a thing of the past.
Technical Marvels, Part 9: Program-Controlled Musical Picture Clocks

Dec 4, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Herbert Bruderer |Ted Selker |Logan Kugler

Picture clocks were very popular in France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in the 19th century. Today, they are traded as sought-after collector’s items at auctions. The paintings, which always contain a clock, often depict romantic landscapes. Some also have a striking mechanism or a music playing mechanism. The clockwork, the striking mechanism, and the cylinder musical box are wound up with a key.
Detecting/Explaining Industrial Hacks

Nov 21, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | R. Colin Johnson |Mark Halper |Karen Emslie |Logan Kugler

The Industrial Control System (ICS) is the pivotal computer system managing industrial processes worldwide—from manufacturing and packaging goods to generating and controlling our power systems, chemical plants, and environmental infrastructure with secure-networked programmable logic controllers (PLCs).
Technical Perspective: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What Is the Best Topology of Them All?

Nov 21, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Michela Taufer |Mark Halper |Karen Emslie |Logan Kugler

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most important emerging technologies of the 21st century, and designing suitable infrastructure for large-scale AI systems is critical. Major companies such as Microsoft, Google, Meta, and even Tesla are touting large-scale “AI supercomputers” as an essential tool for increasingly powerful AI systems, but as AI systems have a more specialized workload than traditional supercomputers, designing and implementing their architecture is a complex process.
Computational Thinking: The Idea That Lived

Nov 1, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | Shuchi Grover |Logan Kugler

In an illuminating conversation recently hosted by Stanford Online, Mehran Sahami and Andrew Ng discussed how AI is changing coding and CS education. Even though the conversation was centered mostly on undergraduate teaching of CS and coding, I highly recommend it to all in the CS education world.
Life Lessons from the First Half-Century of My Career

Oct 10, 2024 | cacm.acm.org | David Patterson |Sam Greengard |Alex Williams |Logan Kugler

I started my career at Hughes Aircraft in 1972 while working on my Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After designing airborne computers for four years, I graduated and then taught and did systems research at UC Berkeley for the next 40. Since 2016, I’ve helped Google with hardware that accelerates artificial intelligence (AI). At the end of my technical talks, I often share my life story and what I’ve learned from my half-century in computing.