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Bill Cook launches companion app to book In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman

February 7, 2012 by

Twenty-four years ago a 2,392-city example of the TSP was solved in a 23-hour run on a super computer to set a new world record. This same problem now solves in 7 minutes on an iPhone 4 thanks to a free app: Concorde TSP Solver!

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/concorde-tsp/id498366515
Press release for Concorde TSP Solver: http://blog.press.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Cook-TSP-app.pdf

Bill Cook, author of In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman, has just launched a FREE app in the iTunes store called CONCORDE TSP SOLVER. The app allows users to plot TSP routes for an uploaded list of cities or any number of random cities.

The CONCORDE TSP SOLVER app is a powerful display of the potential to solve on mobile devices large examples of even the most difficult computational problems. This makes it an ideal tool for understanding and teaching the mathematics behind the most successful line-of-attack on the salesman problem. The colorful graphics show step-by-step how a tool called linear programming zeros in on the optimal route to visit a displayed collection of cities.

CONCORDE TSP SOLVER is a great companion to Cook’s book In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman for general readers and mathematics students alike.

Some early reviews from Twitter:

@CompSciFact (2/5/12)
“We have an embarrassment of computational riches when we can solve traveling salesmen problems on a phone.”

@misterbrash (2/5/12)
“This unravels by University degree and hurts my brain! Solve traveling salesman problem(s) on your iPhone. In seconds.”

@ehtayer (2/5/12)
“Computational life is lush: traveling salesman app.”

@miketrick (2/4/11)
“Touring lots of cities? There’s an app for that! Amazing work by @wjcook and gang.”

Filed Under: Mathematics, Technology, Technology & Media, Twitter

SPARC honors Michael Nielsen as an Innovator of 2012

January 18, 2012 by

In a press release posted online this week (http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/12-0117.shtml), SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), lauded Michael Nielsen’s work “for bringing Open Science into the mainstream,” and added him to a prestigious list of SPARC Innovators.

The timing for this announcement couldn’t be better as the ScienceOnline conference is set to get underway tomorrow and Michael was featured in a New York Times article by Thomas Lin yesterday.

SPARC cites Michael’s popularization of Open Science–in particular his hefty tour schedule of 2011 and his book Reinventing Discovery–in their announcement. They also have a wonderful profile with comments from SPARC Executive Director Heather Joseph, Melissa Hagemann from the Open Society Foundations, biochemist Cameron Neylon, and John Dupuis, the head of the Steacie Science and Engineering Library at York University (the blogger behind Confessions of a Science Librarian).

Princeton University Press is happy to join in with congratulations to Michael on this tremendous honor!

Filed Under: Awards, Physics, Technology, Technology & Media, Twitter

Enjoy this video from John MacCormick, author of Nine Algorithms that Changed the Future

December 9, 2011 by

The video embed code from YouTube doesn’t seem to be working right so here is the link to the site: http://www.youtube.com/user/PUPress#p/u/6/jE6GKAjH8NI.

In his new book, MacCormick identifies the most amazing “tricks” our computers perform — things like encryption, compression, searches — thanks to algorithms. Of course, as with any “list”, there simply isn’t enough room to include every possible algorithm, so sound off below on which algorithms are the most pivotal, creative, or useful in our PCs and hand-held devices.

Filed Under: Mathematics, Technology & Media, Twitter

David Alan Grier: new president of the IEEE Computer Society

October 26, 2011 by

David Alan Grier, author of When Computers Were Human, a book which tells the story of a no-so-distant time in which “computers” were actually people, has been elected by the IEEE Computer Society membership as the 2013 President.

With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals.  The largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology, and is known globally for its computing standards activities.

Grier’s book was recently praised in the Atlantic Monthly:

When Computers Were Human is a detailed and fascinating look at a world I had not even known existed. After reading these accounts of ingenuity, determination, and true creative breakthrough, readers will look at today’s computer-based society in an entirely different way.

–James Fallows

Filed Under: Applied Science and Engineering, Technology, Technology & Media

“The Silicon Jungle” reviewed by Significance Magazine, mentioned by the Financial Times

October 14, 2011 by

Shumeet Baluja’s novel The Silicon Jungle has received some exciting press this month. Claire Packham’s review at Significance Magazine offers a brief overview of the book, praising Baluja’s accessible approach to the importance of data protection on the internet:

The fundamental point [of the novel] remains clear – that the internet contains a wealth of information on almost every aspect of every part of the lives of a vast proportion of the world’s population. This is a level of personal information that has never before been available, and the potential, either for good or for bad, is endless.

In the Financial Times, contributing editor John Lloyd explores the mysterious world of cyber-hacking and “cybercrime” and questions why these issues are largely untroubling to the collective, “public” imagination of Americans. He mentions The Silicon Jungle as one of the only modern cybercrime novels, praising how Baluja dramatizes the issue:

Baluja illustrates well the obsessive nature of advanced internet work, where the huge banks of information to which Ubatoo/Google has access can be manipulated to produce intimate profiles on almost everything and everyone.

Lloyd, like Packham, is concerned about what books like The Silicon Jungle suggest: that the masses of information available on the internet will soon be used against us. As he quotes from the novel’s preface:

It is important to remind ourselves that the technology, policies and sheer enormity of the amount of personal detail amassed about all of us is new. It’s breathtaking. It’s unexpected. All of us, those who are being watched and those who are watching us are, quite literally, in uncharted territory.

Click here to read the full article in the Financial Times

And the full review in Significance Magazine

Filed Under: Mathematics, Technology, Technology & Media, Twitter

Reinventing Discovery reviewed in Nature Physics

October 5, 2011 by

Reinventing Discovery by Michael Nielsen is just shipping to stores this week, so the timing couldn’t be better for this terrific review in Nature Physics from Timo Hannay. The first paragraph does a great job of laying out the big picture of the book:

Like so many fields of human activity, science is in the midst of a digital revolution. Yet the changes we have seen so far are no more than a prelude, with much bigger ones still to come. Researchers have generally been slow to embrace new technologies and practices, and this new era of networked science will only reach its potential when it becomes more open, necessitating new incentive structures and a culture of openness throughout research. Those, in short, are Michael Nielsen’s messages. His stated aim is to encourage this transition by “lighting an almighty fire under the scientific community” to inspire “a second open science revolution”. For although this book is ostensibly about science in the Internet age, it is equally a manifesto for openness in research. Is he right, and will he succeed? In my opinion, yes and maybe.

Click through to read the complete article – it is free online until November 1.

Filed Under: Technology & Media, Twitter

Eager to jump into Quantum Computing? Watch Michael Nielsen’s videos

October 4, 2011 by

While his book with us is not on Quantum Computing, Michael Nielsen is one of the leaders in this field and author of the most popular textbook. He has recently taped 22 short videos that provide an introduction to the basics.

The first one is posted below for a taste, but you can watch the full course on Michael’s YouTube feed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mnielsencourses

Filed Under: Physics, Technology & Media, Twitter

Exclusive Foldit Excerpt from Reinventing Discovery

September 29, 2011 by

Read an exclusive excerpt from Reinventing Discovery: When Amateurs Rival Professionals [PDF].

This week, it seems as though everyone is talking about an amazing breakthrough in AIDS research that was made possible by an online game called Foldit. Foldit is a terrific example of how open science can be a “research accelerator” and illustrates the benefits of crowdsourcing in high level research. But how does it work? Why is it so successful? And how can we get more of it to happen? Foldit is part of a larger revolution happening in science and Michael Nielsen’s new book Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science explains it all.

“For many participants, Foldit … [isn't] a guilty pleasure, like playing World of Warcraft or other online games. Instead, [it's] a way of contributing to something important to society,” writes Michael Nielsen in this exclusive free excerpt from his new book Reinventing Discovery: When Amateurs Rival Professionals [PDF].

Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science ships soon and you can pre-order a copy on our web site or via your favorite online retailer.

I also ran across a great web site at Scientific American where they profile these types of online collaborations. Check it out here.

Filed Under: Astronomy and Cosmology, Biological Sciences, Technology & Media, Twitter

Could a video game yield a breakthrough cure for AIDS?

September 21, 2011 by

Alan Boyle at Cosmic Log reports on the latest example of a growing trend in open science or collaborative science. It may seem unbelievable, but he writes, “Video-game players have solved a molecular puzzle that stumped scientists for years, and those scientists say the accomplishment could point the way to crowdsourced cures for AIDS and other diseases.”

However, before Call of Duty fans use this as an excuse to log even more hours in front of the tv, the video game in question isn’t a shoot ‘em up, XBOX 360 kind of game, rather it is a game called Foldit in which players

manipulate virtual molecular structures that look like multicolored, curled-up Tinkertoy sets. The virtual molecules follow the same chemical rules that are obeyed by real molecules. When someone playing the game comes up with a more elegant structure that reflects a lower energy state for the molecule, his or her score goes up. If the structure requires more energy to maintain, or if it doesn’t reflect real-life chemistry, then the score is lower.

Researchers posted the monkey virus puzzle to Foldit as “kind of a last-ditch effort,” according to Firas Khatib, the lead author of a paper reporting these findings in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. Not only did Foldit gamers solve the puzzle, they did so in record time — 10 days.

This feat is the latest real-world example of the power of Open Science — a new form of collaborative science that draws on “scientists” both professional and citizen and harnesses the power of the internet to collaborate over great distances. Science has traditionally rewarded solo endeavors, but increasing numbers of researchers are turning to these novel research methods.

Boyle describes the Foldit success as “a giant leap for citizen science — a burgeoning field that enlists Internet users to look for alien planets, decipher ancient texts and do other scientific tasks that sheer computer power can’t accomplish as easily.” Think you have what it takes to play Foldit and perhaps contribute to the next big medical breakthrough? You can join in the fun here: http://fold.it/

So, why does this matter to Princeton University Press? In November, we will publish the timely book Reinventing Discovery by Michael Nielsen. In the book, Nielsen, a leading proponent of Open Science, describes how the internet and crowd-sourcing are contributing to collaborative science and plots the way forward. He even has a section of the book devoted to the development of Foldit and why it is so successful. He describes concrete methods to encourage collaboration even in fields that have traditionally eschewed these forms of collaboration. If you would like to sample this book, a free excerpt is now available on our web site here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9517.pdf (PDF)

Filed Under: Biological Sciences, Health and Medicine, Technology & Media, Twitter

Popular Lunch ‘n Learn talk becomes a book – 9 Algorithms That Changed the Future

September 7, 2011 by

We will publish 9 Algorithms That Changed the Future by John MacCormick at the end of this year. This fascinating book reveals the surprising history and uses of 9 major algorithms — equations that control how search items are ranked, how facial recognition software works, how your iPhone knows what you are trying to type when you’ve missed half the letters, among many other things.

While the book is still months away from publication, I thought everyone might enjoy this podcast. Back in March 2010, John spoke at the popular Lunch ‘n Learn series here at Princeton. You can listen to that talk here.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Technology & Media, Twitter

The I Ching or Book of Changes app

September 6, 2011 by

We have jumped into the high tech world of apps twice now. This is our first offering, based on the best-selling PUP version of The I Ching or Book of Changes. You can read more about the app here, purchase a copy here, or watch the video below to learn more about how to use the app.

Filed Under: Asian and Asian American studies, Philosophy, Reference, Religion, Technology & Media, Trailer, Twitter

Snow Crash at UTSA, Second Life featuring Tom Boellstorff’s book

August 25, 2011 by

This eerily beautiful video features a computer voice reading portions of Tom Boellstorff’s Coming of Age in Second Life. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Technology & Media, Twitter
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