Hamming, "Simulation, Part I" (May 5, 1995)
Channel: securitylectures
Date: 2012-08-09

Intro: A major use of computers these days, after writing and text editing, graphics, program compilation, etc. is simulation. More than 9 out of 10 experiments are done on computers these days. I have already mentioned my serious worries that we are depending on simulation more and more, and are looking at reality less and less, and hence seem to be approaching the old scholastic attitude that what is in the textbooks is reality and does not need constant experimental checks. I will not dwell on this point further now. We use computers to do simulations because they are: (1) cheaper, (2) faster, (3) often better, and (4) can do what you cannot do in the lab.



The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn" was the capstone course by Dr. Richard W. Hamming (1915-1998) for graduate students at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey California. 

This course is intended to instill a "style of thinking" that will enhance one's ability to function as a problem solver of complex technical issues. With respect, students sometimes called the course "Hamming on Hamming" because he relates many research collaborations, discoveries, inventions and achievements of his own. This collection of stories and carefully distilled insights relates how those discoveries came about. Most importantly, these presentations provide objective analysis about the thought processes and reasoning that took place as Dr. Hamming, his associates and other major thinkers, in computer science and electronics, progressed through the grand challenges of science and engineering in the twentieth century.