Synthesis Lectures on Computer Science – serie

Science fiction is the playground of the imagination. If you are interested in science or fascinated with the future then science fiction is where you explore new ideas and let your dreams and nightmares duke it out on the safety of the page or screen. But what if we could use science fiction to do more than that? What if we could use science fiction based on science fact to not only imagine our future but develop new technologies and products? What if we could use stories, movies and comics as a kind of tool to explore the real world implications and uses of future technologies today?Science Fiction Prototyping is a practical guide to using fiction as a way to imagine our future in a whole new way. Filled with history, real world examples and conversations with experts like best selling science fiction author Cory Doctorow, senior editor at Dark Horse Comics Chris Warner and Hollywood science expert Sidney Perkowitz, Science Fiction Prototyping will give you the tools you need tobegin designing the future with science fiction.The future is Brian David Johnson’s business. As a futurist at Intel Corporation, his charter is to develop an actionable vision for computing in 2021. His work is called “future casting”—using ethnographic field studies, technology research, trend data, and even science fiction to create a pragmatic vision of consumers and computing. Johnson has been pioneering development in artificial intelligence, robotics, and reinventing TV. He speaks and writes extensively about future technologies in articles and scientific papers as well as science fiction short stories and novels (Fake Plastic Love and Screen Future: The Future of Entertainment, Computing and the Devices We Love). He has directed two feature films and is an illustrator and commissioned painter.Table of Contents: Preface / Foreword / Epilogue / Dedication / Acknowledgments / 1. The Future Is in Your Hands / 2. Religious Robots and Runaway Were-Tigers: A Brief Overview ofthe Science and the Fiction that Went Into Two SF Prototypes / 3. How to Build Your Own SF Prototype in Five Steps or Less / 4. I, Robot: From Asimov to Doctorow: Exploring Short Fiction as an SF Prototype and a Conversation With Cory Doctorow / 5. The Men in the Moon: Exploring Movies as an SF Prototype and a Conversation with Sidney Perkowitz / 6. Science in the Gutters: Exploring Comics as an SF Prototype and a Conversation With Chris Warner / 7. Making the Future: Now that You Have Developed Your SF Prototype, What’s Next? / 8. Einstein’s Thought Experiments and Asimov’s Second Dream / Appendix A: The SF Prototypes / Notes / Author Biography

In the history of modern computation, large mechanical calculators preceded computers. A person would sit there punching keys according to a procedure and a number would eventually appear. Once calculators became fast enough, it became obvious that the critical path was the punching rather than the calculation itself. That is what made the stored program concept vital to further progress. Once the instructions were stored in the machine, the entire computation could run at the speed of the machine. This book shows how to do the same thing for DNA computing. Rather than asking a robot or a person to pour in specific strands at different times in order to cause a DNA computation to occur (by analogy to a person punching numbers and operations into a mechanical calculator), the DNA instructions are stored within the solution and guide the entire computation. We show how to store straight line programs, conditionals, loops, and a rudimentary form of subroutines.To achieve this goal, the book proposes a complete language for describing the intrinsic topology of DNA complexes and nanomachines, along with the dynamics of such a system. We then describe dynamic behavior using a set of basic transitions, which operate on a small neighborhood within a complex in a well-defined way. These transitions can be formalized as purely syntactical functions of the string representations.Building on that foundation, the book proposes a novel machine motif which constitutes an instruction stack, allowing for the clocked release of an arbitrary sequence of DNA instruction or data strands. The clock mechanism is built of special strands of DNA called ""tick"" and ""tock."" Each time a ""tick"" and ""tock"" enter a DNA solution, a strand is released from an instruction stack (by analogy to the way in which as a clock cycle in an electronic computer causes a new instruction to enter a processing unit). As long as there remain strands on the stack, the next cycle will release a new instruction strand. Regardless of the actual strand or component to be released at any particular clock step, the ""tick"" and ""tock"" fuel strands remain the same, thus shifting the burden of work away from the end user of a machine and easing operation. Pre-loaded stacks enable the concept of a stored program to be realized as a physical DNA mechanism.A conceptual example is given of such a stack operating a walker device. The stack allows for a user to operate such a clocked walker by means of simple repetition of adding two fuel types, in contrast to the previous mechanism of adding a unique fuel -- at least 12 different types of strands -- for each step of the mechanism.We demonstrate by a series of experiments conducted in Ned Seeman's lab that it is possible to ""initialize"" a clocked stored program DNA machine. We end the book with a discussion of the design features of a programming language for clocked DNA programming. There is a lot left to do.Table of Contents:Introduction / Notation / A Topological Description of DNA Computing / Machines and Motifs / Experiment: Storing Clocked Programs in DNA / A Clocked DNA Programming Language

This book is a gentle but rigorous introduction to Formal Logic. It is intended primarily for use at the college level. However, it can also be used for advanced secondary school students, and it can be used at the start of graduate school for those who have not yet seen the material.The approach to teaching logic used here emerged from more than 20 years of teaching logic to students at Stanford University and from teaching logic to tens of thousands of others via online courses on the World Wide Web. The approach differs from that taken by other books in logic in two essential ways, one having to do with content, the other with form.Like many other books on logic, this one covers logical syntax and semantics and proof theory plus induction. However, unlike other books, this book begins with Herbrand semantics rather than the more traditional Tarskian semantics. This approach makes the material considerably easier for students to understand and leaves them with a deeper understanding of what logic is all about.In addition to this text, there are online exercises (with automated grading), online logic tools and applications, online videos of lectures, and an online forum for discussion. They are available at http://intrologic.stanford.edu/

This book is an introduction to analytical performance modeling for computer systems, i.e., writing equations to describe their performance behavior. It is accessible to readers who have taken college-level courses in calculus and probability, networking, and operating systems.This is not a training manual for becoming an expert performance analyst. Rather, the objective is to help the reader construct simple models for analyzing and understanding the systems that they are interested in.Describing a complicated system abstractly with mathematical equations requires a careful choice of assumptions and approximations. They make the model tractable, but they must not remove essential characteristics of the system, nor introduce spurious properties.To help the reader understand the choices and their implications, this book discusses the analytical models for 40 research papers. These papers cover a broad range of topics: GPUs and disks, routers and crawling, databases and multimedia, worms and wireless, multicore and cloud, security and energy, etc. An appendix provides many questions for readers to exercise their understanding of the models in these papers.

This book introduces all the technical features that make up blockchain technology today. It starts with a thorough explanation of all technological concepts necessary to understand any discussions related to distributed ledgers and a short history of earlier implementations. It then discusses in detail how the Bitcoin network looks and what changes are coming in the near future, together with a range of altcoins that were created on the same base code. To get an even better idea, the book shortly explores how Bitcoin might be forked before going into detail on the Ethereum network and cryptocurrencies running on top of the network, smart contracts, and more. The book introduces the Hyperledger foundation and the tools offered to create private blockchain solutions. For those willing, it investigates directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) and several of its implementations, which could solve several of the problems other blockchain networks are still dealing with to this day. In Chapter 4, readers can find an overview of blockchain networks that can be used to build solutions of their own and the tools that can help them in the process.

This book is one of the first technical overviews of autonomous vehicles written for a general computing and engineering audience. The authors share their practical experiences designing autonomous vehicle systems. These systems are complex, consisting of three major subsystems: (1) algorithms for localization, perception, and planning and control; (2) client systems, such as the robotics operating system and hardware platform; and (3) the cloud platform, which includes data storage, simulation, high-definition (HD) mapping, and deep learning model training. The algorithm subsystem extracts meaningful information from sensor raw data to understand its environment and make decisions as to its future actions. The client subsystem integrates these algorithms to meet real-time and reliability requirements. The cloud platform provides offline computing and storage capabilities for autonomous vehicles. Using the cloud platform, new algorithms can be tested so as to update the HD map—in addition to training better recognition, tracking, and decision models.Since the first edition of this book was released, many universities have adopted it in their autonomous driving classes, and the authors received many helpful comments and feedback from readers. Based on this, the second edition was improved by extending and rewriting multiple chapters and adding two commercial test case studies. In addition, a new section entitled “Teaching and Learning from this Book” was added to help instructors better utilize this book in their classes. The second edition captures the latest advances in autonomous driving and that it also presents usable real-world case studies to help readers better understand how to utilize their lessons in commercial autonomous driving projects.This book should be useful to students, researchers, and practitioners alike. Whether you are an undergraduate or a graduate student interested in autonomous driving, you will find herein a comprehensive overview of the whole autonomous vehicle technology stack. If you are an autonomous driving practitioner, the many practical techniques introduced in this book will be of interest to you. Researchers will also find extensive references for an effective, deeper exploration of the various technologies.

Search structures support the fundamental data storage primitives on key-value pairs: insert a pair, delete by key, search by key, and update the value associated with a key. Concurrent search structures are parallel algorithms to speed access to search structures on multicore and distributed servers. These sophisticated algorithms perform fine-grained synchronization between threads, making them notoriously difficult to design correctly. Indeed, bugs have been found both in actual implementations and in the designs proposed by experts in peer-reviewed publications. The rapid development and deployment of these concurrent algorithms has resulted in a rift between the algorithms that can be verified by the state-of-the-art techniques and those being developed and used today. The goal of this book is to show how to bridge this gap in order to bring the certified safety of formal verification to high-performance concurrent search structures. Similar techniques and frameworks can be applied to concurrent graph and network algorithms beyond search structures.

This book is the first to present the state of the art and provide technical focus on the latest advances in the foundations of blockchain systems. It is a collaborative work between specialists in cryptography, distributed systems, formal languages, and economics, and addresses hot topics in blockchains from a theoretical perspective: cryptographic primitives, consensus, formalization of blockchain properties, game theory applied to blockchains, and economical issues. This book reflects the expertise of the various authors, and is intended to benefit researchers, students, and engineers who seek an understanding of the theoretical foundations of blockchains.

After a short introduction on the history of programming languages, this book provides step-by-step examples that are mirrored in seven programming languages, including C#, C++, Java, JavaScript, PERL, PHP, Python, Ruby, VB, and VBA. This mirrored approach for each of the examples represents the main feature of the book with the goal of gaining a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of programming and scripting languages. This approach also allows readers to learn the mechanics of short implementations and the algorithms involved, no matter what technology and programs are used in the future. Based on the growing need for programmers to be proficient across languages, the book is designed in such a way that no prior training or exposure to the programming languages is needed by readers.

After a short introduction on the history of programming languages, this book provides step-by-step examples that are mirrored in seven programming languages, including C#, C++, Java, JavaScript, PERL, PHP, Python, Ruby, VB, and VBA. This mirrored approach for each of the examples represents the main feature of the book with the goal of gaining a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of programming and scripting languages. This approach also allows readers to learn the mechanics of short implementations and the algorithms involved, no matter what technology and programs are used in the future. Based on the growing need for programmers to be proficient across languages, the book is designed in such a way that no prior training or exposure to the programming languages is needed by readers.

This book presents the concept of Control Barrier Function (CBF), which captures the evolution of safety requirements during the execution of a system and can be used to enforce safety. Safety is formalized using an emerging state-of-the-art approach based on CBFs, and many illustrative examples from autonomous driving, traffic control, and robot control are provided. Safety is central to autonomous systems since they are intended to operate with minimal or no human supervision, and a single failure could result in catastrophic results. The authors discuss how safety can be guaranteed via both theoretical and application perspectives. This presented method is computationally efficient and can be easily implemented in real-time systems that require high-frequency reactive control. In addition, the CBF approach can easily deal with nonlinear models and complex constraints used in a wide spectrum of applications, including autonomous driving, robotics, and traffic control. Withthe proliferation of autonomous systems, such as self-driving cars, mobile robots, and unmanned air vehicles, safety plays a crucial role in ensuring their widespread adoption. This book considers the integration of safety guarantees into the operation of such systems including typical safety requirements that involve collision avoidance, technological system limitations, and bounds on real-time executions. Adaptive approaches for safety are also proposed for time-varying execution bounds and noisy dynamics.

This book presents the concept of Control Barrier Function (CBF), which captures the evolution of safety requirements during the execution of a system and can be used to enforce safety. Safety is formalized using an emerging state-of-the-art approach based on CBFs, and many illustrative examples from autonomous driving, traffic control, and robot control are provided. Safety is central to autonomous systems since they are intended to operate with minimal or no human supervision, and a single failure could result in catastrophic results. The authors discuss how safety can be guaranteed via both theoretical and application perspectives. This presented method is computationally efficient and can be easily implemented in real-time systems that require high-frequency reactive control. In addition, the CBF approach can easily deal with nonlinear models and complex constraints used in a wide spectrum of applications, including autonomous driving, robotics, and traffic control. Withthe proliferation of autonomous systems, such as self-driving cars, mobile robots, and unmanned air vehicles, safety plays a crucial role in ensuring their widespread adoption. This book considers the integration of safety guarantees into the operation of such systems including typical safety requirements that involve collision avoidance, technological system limitations, and bounds on real-time executions. Adaptive approaches for safety are also proposed for time-varying execution bounds and noisy dynamics.

This book stems from the growing use of learning-based techniques, such as reinforcement learning and adaptive control, in the control of autonomous and safety-critical systems.  Safety is critical to many applications, such as autonomous driving, air traffic control, and robotics.  As these learning-enabled technologies become more prevalent in the control of autonomous systems, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that such systems are safe.  To address these challenges, the authors provide a self-contained treatment of learning-based control techniques with rigorous guarantees of stability and safety.  This book contains recent results on provably correct control techniques from specifications that go beyond safety and stability, such as temporal logic formulas.  The authors bring together control theory, optimization, machine learning, and formal methods and present worked-out examples and extensive simulation examples to complement the mathematical style of presentation.  Prerequisites are minimal, and the underlying ideas are accessible to readers with only a brief background in control-theoretic ideas, such as Lyapunov stability theory.

This book stems from the growing use of learning-based techniques, such as reinforcement learning and adaptive control, in the control of autonomous and safety-critical systems.  Safety is critical to many applications, such as autonomous driving, air traffic control, and robotics.  As these learning-enabled technologies become more prevalent in the control of autonomous systems, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that such systems are safe.  To address these challenges, the authors provide a self-contained treatment of learning-based control techniques with rigorous guarantees of stability and safety.  This book contains recent results on provably correct control techniques from specifications that go beyond safety and stability, such as temporal logic formulas.  The authors bring together control theory, optimization, machine learning, and formal methods and present worked-out examples and extensive simulation examples to complement the mathematical style of presentation.  Prerequisites are minimal, and the underlying ideas are accessible to readers with only a brief background in control-theoretic ideas, such as Lyapunov stability theory.

This book introduces a simplified approach to web application development using the open-source ASP .Net Core MVC framework.  Readers will learn to implement web applications using the following languages and frameworks: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Bootstrap, C#, ASP .Net, and Entity Framework Core.  In addition, this book addresses how to build a web application to create user accounts, store data in a database, manipulate data, and how to allow controlled access to certain parts of the application functionality. The author also covers both client-side and server-side development and the use of an object relational mapper to work with persistent data (using a database).  Topics include: models, views, controllers, routing, entity framework core, identity, layouts, dependency injection and services, model binder, among others. This book: Introduces the development of web applications using the open-source ASP .Net Core MVC frameworkImplements web applications including HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Bootstrap, C#, ASP .Net, and Entity Framework CoreFeatures client-side development, server-side development, and object relational mapper software

This book introduces a simplified approach to web application development using the open-source ASP .Net Core MVC framework.  Readers will learn to implement web applications using the following languages and frameworks: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Bootstrap, C#, ASP .Net, and Entity Framework Core.  In addition, this book addresses how to build a web application to create user accounts, store data in a database, manipulate data, and how to allow controlled access to certain parts of the application functionality. The author also covers both client-side and server-side development and the use of an object relational mapper to work with persistent data (using a database).  Topics include: models, views, controllers, routing, entity framework core, identity, layouts, dependency injection and services, model binder, among others. This book: Introduces the development of web applications using the open-source ASP .Net Core MVC frameworkImplements web applications including HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Bootstrap, C#, ASP .Net, and Entity Framework CoreFeatures client-side development, server-side development, and object relational mapper software

Readers will be able to describe metareasoning, select an appropriate metareasoning approach, and synthesize metareasoning policies. This book introduces key concepts, discusses design options for metareasoning approaches and policies, and presents approaches for testing and evaluation of metareasoning policies.

This book is a state of the art resource that robotics researchers and engineers can use to make their robots and autonomous vehicles smarter. Readers will be able to describe metareasoning, select an appropriate metareasoning approach, and synthesize metareasoning policies. Metareasoning for Robots adopts a systems engineering perspective in which metareasoning is an approach that can improve the overall robot or autonomous system, not just one component or subsystem. This book introduces key concepts, discusses design options for metareasoning approaches and policies, and presents approaches for testing and evaluation of metareasoning policies. After considering the conceptual design phase, it discusses how to implement metareasoning in the robot’s software architecture and how to synthesize metareasoning policies.  Every chapter has references to valuable works on robotics and metareasoning, and the book uses examples from the author’s own research andfrom other research groups to illustrate these ideas. In addition, this book provides links to books and papers for readers who wish to investigate these topics further.

This book illustrates how to achieve effective dimension reduction and data clustering. The authors explain how to accomplish this by utilizing the advanced dynamic graph learning technique in the era of big data. The book begins by providing background on dynamic graph learning. The authors discuss why it has attracted considerable research attention in recent years and has become well recognized as an advanced technique. After covering the key topics related to dynamic graph learning, the book discusses the recent advancements in the area. The authors then explain how these techniques can be practically applied for several purposes, including feature selection, feature projection, and data clustering.

This book illustrates how to achieve effective dimension reduction and data clustering. The authors explain how to accomplish this by utilizing the advanced dynamic graph learning technique in the era of big data. The book begins by providing background on dynamic graph learning. The authors discuss why it has attracted considerable research attention in recent years and has become well recognized as an advanced technique. After covering the key topics related to dynamic graph learning, the book discusses the recent advancements in the area. The authors then explain how these techniques can be practically applied for several purposes, including feature selection, feature projection, and data clustering.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of Human Activity Detection or Recognition (HADR) systems. Detection or recognition of human activities is a prominent research area in the fields of computer vision and artificial intelligence because of its many applications in daily life, including monitoring in public transport areas, health monitoring, anomaly detection in traffic, and smart homes. This book divides different activities according to their criticality, then discusses the various motivations and challenges that are involved in HADR systems. The authors then propose a framework for activity detection or recognition. The book also covers ten key applications of HADR systems and the recent developments for each of them. The authors also propose areas for future research.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of Human Activity Detection or Recognition (HADR) systems. Detection or recognition of human activities is a prominent research area in the fields of computer vision and artificial intelligence because of its many applications in daily life, including monitoring in public transport areas, health monitoring, anomaly detection in traffic, and smart homes. This book divides different activities according to their criticality, then discusses the various motivations and challenges that are involved in HADR systems. The authors then propose a framework for activity detection or recognition. The book also covers ten key applications of HADR systems and the recent developments for each of them. The authors also propose areas for future research.

This book goes beyond the current hype of expectations generated by the news on artificial intelligence and machine learning by analyzing realistic expectations for society, its limitations, and possible future scenarios for the use of this technology in our current society. Artificial Intelligence is one of the top topics today and is inflating expectations beyond what the technology can do in the foreseeable future. The future cannot be predicted, but the future of some elements of our society, such as technology, can be estimated. This book merges the modeling of human reasoning with the power of AI technology allowing readers to make more informed decisions about their personal or financial decisions or just being more educated on current technologies. This book presents a model that sketches potential future scenarios based on a discussion of the expectations today, the analysis of the current gap in the literature, and a view of possible futures in terms of technology and use cases. Specifically, this book merges literature on the technology aspects, the sociological impacts, and philosophical aspects.

This book goes beyond the current hype of expectations generated by the news on artificial intelligence and machine learning by analyzing realistic expectations for society, its limitations, and possible future scenarios for the use of this technology in our current society. Artificial Intelligence is one of the top topics today and is inflating expectations beyond what the technology can do in the foreseeable future. The future cannot be predicted, but the future of some elements of our society, such as technology, can be estimated. This book merges the modeling of human reasoning with the power of AI technology allowing readers to make more informed decisions about their personal or financial decisions or just being more educated on current technologies. This book presents a model that sketches potential future scenarios based on a discussion of the expectations today, the analysis of the current gap in the literature, and a view of possible futures in terms of technology and use cases. Specifically, this book merges literature on the technology aspects, the sociological impacts, and philosophical aspects.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to Matlab, which stands as the cornerstone of modern education and is the main computer language driving development in science and engineering. The author introduces readers to the rich world of Matlab, taking them on a journey from the fundamentals to advanced topics, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to become a proficient Matlab developer or scientist. The book provides a treasure trove of practical examples, meticulously crafted to deepen the reader understanding of Matlab. This comprehensive exploration is designed to cater to novice learners as well as mature developers and scientists, equipping them with the requisite knowledge and competencies to harness the Matlab full potential in their respective projects. From the basics of variable naming and program structure to complex matrix operations, recursion, and object-oriented programming, this book covers it all. This book is part of a series of worksdesigned to present both the examples and their explanations in various computer languages, as close to a mirror version as possible.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to Matlab, which stands as the cornerstone of modern education and is the main computer language driving development in science and engineering. The author introduces readers to the rich world of Matlab, taking them on a journey from the fundamentals to advanced topics, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to become a proficient Matlab developer or scientist. The book provides a treasure trove of practical examples, meticulously crafted to deepen the reader understanding of Matlab. This comprehensive exploration is designed to cater to novice learners as well as mature developers and scientists, equipping them with the requisite knowledge and competencies to harness the Matlab full potential in their respective projects. From the basics of variable naming and program structure to complex matrix operations, recursion, and object-oriented programming, this book covers it all. This book is part of a series of worksdesigned to present both the examples and their explanations in various computer languages, as close to a mirror version as possible.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to Python, which stands as the cornerstone of modern programming and is the main computer language driving software prototyping in both industry and research. The author introduces readers to the rich world of Python, taking them on a journey from the fundamentals to advanced topics, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to become a proficient Python developer or scientist. The book provides a treasure trove of practical examples, meticulously crafted to deepen the reader understanding of Python. This comprehensive exploration is designed to cater to novice learners as well as mature developers and scientists, equipping them with the requisite knowledge and competencies to harness the Python full potential in their respective projects. From the basics of variable naming and program structure to complex matrix operations, recursion, and object-oriented programming, this book covers it all. This book is part of a seriesof works designed to present both the examples and their explanations in various computer languages, as close to a mirror version as possible.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to Python, which stands as the cornerstone of modern programming and is the main computer language driving software prototyping in both industry and research. The author introduces readers to the rich world of Python, taking them on a journey from the fundamentals to advanced topics, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to become a proficient Python developer or scientist. The book provides a treasure trove of practical examples, meticulously crafted to deepen the reader understanding of Python. This comprehensive exploration is designed to cater to novice learners as well as mature developers and scientists, equipping them with the requisite knowledge and competencies to harness the Python full potential in their respective projects. From the basics of variable naming and program structure to complex matrix operations, recursion, and object-oriented programming, this book covers it all. This book is part of a seriesof works designed to present both the examples and their explanations in various computer languages, as close to a mirror version as possible.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to JavaScript, which stands as the cornerstone of modern programming and is the main computer language driving the Internet. The author introduces readers to the rich world of JavaScript, taking them on a journey from the fundamentals to advanced topics, equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to become a proficient science and engineering oriented JavaScript developer. The book provides a treasure trove of practical examples, meticulously crafted to deepen the reader understanding of JavaScript. This comprehensive exploration is designed to cater to novice learners as well as mature developers and scientists, equipping them with the requisite knowledge and competencies to harness the JavaScript full potential in their respective projects. This book is part of a series of works designed to present both the examples and their explanations in various computer languages, as close to a mirror version as possible.