Great Reading in Computer Science

Great Reading in Computer Science: "

Dr. Gabriel Robins Professor of Computer Science Department of Computer Science School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Virginia 151 Engineer's Way, P.O. Box 400740 Charlottesville, VA 22904-4740, USA robins@cs.virginia.edu www.cs.virginia.edu/robins Phone: (434) 982-2207, Fax: (434) 982-2214 Office: 210 Olsson Hall Gabe's vitae / resume (NIH Biosketch)

Great supplemental reading in Computer Science

The following is a list of great readings in computer science, with a
focus on algorithms and theory topics:

• The best pair of talks I have ever heard: (and
  their associated media
  coverage)
  
  
  
  
  • 
    Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture'
    
    
  • Randy
    Pausch's 'Time Management' lecture and its Powerpoint
    slides.
    
    
  
  

  
  

• Scale of the Universe:
  
  
  
  • 'Powers of
    Ten', Charles and Ray Eames, 1977
    
  
  

  
  

• Other good videos:
  
  
  
  • Claude Shannon - Father of the Information Age
    
  
  

  
  

• Theory and Algorithms:
  
  
  
  • Who
    Can Name the Bigger Number, Scott Aaronson, 1999
    
  • The
    Limits of Reason, Gregory Chaitin, Scientific American, March 2006, pp. 74-81.
    
  • 
    Breaking Intractability, Joseph Traub and Henryk Wozniakowski,
    Scientific American, January 1994, pp. 102-107.
    
  • 
    Confronting Science's Logical Limits, John Casti, Scientific American,
    October 1996, pp. 102-105.
    
  • 
    Go Forth and Replicate, Moshe Sipper and James Reggia, Scientific
    American, August 2001, pp. 34-43.
    
  • 
    The Science Behind Sudoku, Jean-Paul Delahaye, Scientific American,
    June 2006, pp. 80-87.
    
  • 
    The Traveler's Dilemma, Kaushik Basu, Scientific American, June 2007,
    pp. 90-95.
    

    
    

  
  
• Biological Computing:
  
  
  
  • Computing
    with DNA, Leonard Adleman, Scientific American, August 1998,
    pp. 54-61.
    
  • Bringning
    DNA Computing to Life, Ehud Shapiro and Yaakov Benenson, Scientific
    American, May 2006, pp. 44-51.
    
  • 
    Engineering Life: Building a FAB for Biology, David Baker et al.,
    Scientific American, June 2006, pp. 44-51.
    
  • 
    Big Lab on a Tiny Chip, Charles Choi, Scientific American, October 2007,
    pp. 100-103.
    
  • DNA
    Computers for Work and Play, Macdonald et al, Scientific American,
    November 2007, pp. 84-91.
    
  
  

  
  

• Quantum Computing:
  
  
  
  • 
    Quantum Mechanical Computers, Seth Lloyd, Scientific American,
    1997, pp. 98-104.
    
  • 
    Quantum Computing with Molecules, Gershenfeld and Chuang, Scientific
    American, June 1998, pp. 66-71.
    
  • Black
    Hole Computers, Seth Lloyd and Jack Ng, Scientific American, November
    2004, pp. 52-61.
    
  • Computing
    with Quantum Knots, Graham Collins, Scientific American, April 2006,
    pp. 56-63.
    
  • The
    Limits of Quantum Computers, Scott Aaronson, Scientific American,
    March 2008, pp. 62-69.
    
  • 
    Quantum Computing with Ions, Monroe and Wineland, Scientific American,
    August 2008, pp. 64-71.
    

    
    

  
  
• History of Computing:
  
  
  
  • 
    Alan Turing's Forgotten Ideas, B. Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot,
    Scientific American, May 1999, pp. 98-103.
    
  • 
    Ada and the First Computer, Eugene Kim and Betty Toole, Scientific
    American, April 1999, pp. 76-81.
    
  • 
    Decoding an Ancient Computer, Tony Freeth, Scientific American,
    December 2009, pp. 76-83.
    
  • 
    The Origins of Computing, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Scientific American,
    September 2009, pp. 62-69.
    

    
    

  
  
• Security and Privacy:
  
  
  
  • 
    Malware Goes Mobile, Mikko Hypponen, Scientific American, November
    2006, pp. 70-77.
    
  • 
    RFID Poweder, Tim Hornyak, Scientific American, February
    2008, pp. 68-71.
    
  • Can
    Phishing be Foiled, Lorrie Cranor, Scientific American, December 2008,
    pp. 104-110.
    
  
  

  
  

• The Web:
  
  
  
  • 
    The Semantic Web in Action, Lee Feigenbaum et al., Scientific
    American, December 2007, pp. 90-97.
    
  • Web
    Science Emerges, Nigel Shadbolt and Tim Berners-Lee, Scientific
    American, October 2008, pp. 76-81.
    
  
  

  
  

• Future of Computing:
  
  
  
  • 
    Microprocessors in 2020, David Patteson, Scientific American,
    September 1995, pp. 62-67.
    
  • 
    Computing Without Clocks, Ivan Sutherland and Jo Ebergen, Scientific
    American, August 2002, pp. 62-69.
    
  • 
    Making Silicon Lase, Bahram Jalali, Scientific American, February
    2007, pp. 58-65.
    
  • 
    A Robot in Every Home, Bill Gates, Scientific American, January
    2007, pp. 58-65.
    
  • 
    Ballbots, Ralph Hollis, Scientific American, October 2006,
    pp. 72-77.
    
  • 
    Dependable Software by Design, Daniel Jackson, Scientific American,
    June 2006, pp. 68-75.
    
  • 
    Not Tonight Dear - I Have to Reboot, Charles Choi, Scientific
    American, March 2008, pp. 94-97.
    
  • 
    Self-Powered Nanotech, Zhong Lin Wang, Scientific American, January
    2008, pp. 82-87.
    
  • 
    Powering Nanobots, Thomas Mallouk and Ayusman Sen, Scientific
    American, May 2009, pp. 72-77.
    
  • 
    Racetrack Memory, Stuart Parkin, Scientific American, June 2009,
    pp. 76-81
    
  • 
    The Next 20Years of Microchips, Scientific American, June 2009, pp. 82-89
    

    
    

  
  
• Historic / seminal papers:
  
  
  
  • Turing's 1936 paper
    
  • Claude Shannon's Masters Thesis, 1937
    
  • Karp's 1972 NP-completeness paper
    
  
  

  
  

• The
  Wikipedia Math Portal:
  
  
  
  • Problem solving
    
  • List of Mathematical lists
    
  • Sets and
    Infinity
    
  • Discrete mathematics
    
  • Proof techniques and
    list of proofs
    
  • Information theory,
    entropy, and
    randomness
    
  • Game theory
    
  
  

  
  

• The Wikipedia Computer Science
  Portal:
  
  
  
  • Theory of computation
    and Automata theory
    
  • Formal languages
    and grammars
    
  • Chomsky hierarchy
    and the Complexity Zoo
    
  • Regular,
    context-free,
    Turing-decidable
    and
    Turing-recognizable
    languages
    
    
  • Finite automata,
    pushdown automata, and
    Turing machines
    
  • Computational complexity
    
  • Algorithm
    
  • List of data
    structures
    and
    algorithms
    
  • The Turing Test
    
  • The Technological Singularity
    
  
  

  
  

• Mathematica's Math World
  

  
  

• Additional great books:
  
  
  
  
  • Computational Geometry - An Introduction, Preparata and Shamos
    
    
  • 
    Infinity and the Mind: the Science and Philosophy of the Infinite, R. Rucker
    
    
  • How
    to Solve It, G. Polya
    
    
  • Godel,
    Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, D. Hofstadter
    
    
  
  

• General great advice on life, research, and graduate school:
  
  
  
  
  • Randy
    Pausch's 'Last Lecture', its Oprah Show
    Reprise, and its related media
    coverage)
    
    
  • Randy
    Pausch's 'Time Management' lecture and its Powerpoint
    slides.
    
    
  • 
    You
    and Your Research (or PDF)
    
    
  • Graduate
    School Advice
    
  
  

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