A Computer Approach

Proof is the primary vehicle for knowledge generation in mathematics. In computer science, proof has found an additional use: verifying that a particular system (or component, or algorithm) has certai

The computer services industry has worldwide annual revenues of nearly a trillion dollars and employs millions of workers, but is often overshadowed by the hardware and software products industries. I

What makes computer programs fast or slow? To answer this question, we have to go behind the abstractions of programming languages and look at how a computer really works. This book examines and expla

The most visible use of computers and software is processing information for human consumption. The vast majority of computers in use, however, are much less visible. They run the engine, brakes, seat

This comprehensive introduction to modeling business-information systems focuses on business processes. It describes and demonstrates the formal modeling of processes in terms of Petri nets, using a

A comprehensive text and reference that covers all aspects of computer music, including digital audio, synthesis techniques, signal processing, musical input devices, performance software, editing sy

How organizations can foster diversity, equity, and inclusion: taking action to address and prevent workplace bias while centering women of color. Few would disagree that inclusion is both the right thing to do and good for business. Then why are we so terrible at it? If we believe in the morality and the profitability of including people of diverse and underestimated backgrounds in the workplace, why don't we do it? Because, explains Ruchika Tulshyan in this eye-opening book, we don't realize that inclusion takes awareness, intention, and regular practice. Inclusion doesn't just happen; we have to work at it. Tulshyan presents inclusion best practices, showing how leaders and organizations can meaningfully promote inclusion and diversity. Tulshyan centers the workplace experience of women of color, who are subject to both gender and racial bias. It is at the intersection of gender and race, she shows, that we discover the kind of inclusion policies that benefit all. Tulshyan debunks t

A new version of the classic and widely used text adapted for the JavaScript programming language.Since the publication of its first edition in 1984 and its second edition in 1996, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) has influenced computer science curricula around the world. Widely adopted as a textbook, the book has its origins in a popular entry-level computer science course taught by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman at MIT. SICP introduces the reader to central ideas of computation by establishing a series of mental models for computation. Earlier editions used the programming language Scheme in their program examples. This new version of the second edition has been adapted for JavaScript. The first three chapters of SICP cover programming concepts that are common to all modern high-level programming languages. Chapters four and five, which used Scheme to formulate language processors for Scheme, required significant revision. Chapter four offers new mat

Economic concepts and techniques presented through a series of “big questions,” models that show how to pose a question rigorously and work toward an answer.This book helps readers master economic con

The new edition of a guide to distributed algorithms that emphasizes examples and exercises rather than the intricacies of mathematical models.This book offers students and researchers a guide to dist

The history of the first programmable electronic computer, from its conception, construction, and use to its afterlife as a part of computing folklore.Conceived in 1943, completed in 1945, and decommi

In the 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System videogame Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, a character famously declared: I AM ERROR. Puzzled players assumed that this cryptic mesage was a programming flaw

Picture a computer scientist, staring at a screen and clicking away frantically on a keyboard, hacking into a system, or perhaps developing an app. Now delete that picture. In Once Upon an Algorithm,

Annette Vee attempts to lay out what is at stake when the ability to programming computers is framed as a "literacy." As her primary approach, Vee offers a series of arguments about the way the notion

The image of the scholar as a solitary thinker dates back at least to Descartes'Discourse on Method. But scholarly practices in the humanities are changing as older forms of communal inquiry are combi

In the 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System videogame Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, a character famously declared: I AM ERROR. Puzzled players assumed that this cryptic mesage was a programming flaw,

Seeing has puzzled scientists and philosophers for centuries and it continues to do so. This new edition of a classic text offers an accessible but rigorous introduction to the computational approach

In the early days of computer science, the interactions of hardware, software, compilers, and operating system were simple enough to allow students to see an overall picture of how computers worked. W

In Unit Operations, Ian Bogost argues that similar principles underlie both literary theory and computation, proposing a literary-technical theory that can be used to analyze particular videogames. M

This innovative text presents computer programming as a unified discipline in a way that is both practical and scientifically sound. The book focuses on techniques of lasting value and explains them

Category theory is a branch of pure mathematics that is becoming an increasingly important tool in theoretical computer science, especially in programming language semantics, domain theory, and concu

An expert offers a guide to where we should use artificial intelligence―and where we should not.Before we know it, artificial intelligence (AI) will work its way into every corner of our lives, making decisions about, with, and for us. Is this a good thing? There’s a tendency to think that machines can be more “objective” than humans―can make better decisions about job applicants, for example, or risk assessments. In Awkward Intelligence, AI expert Katharina Zweig offers readers the inside story, explaining how many levers computer and data scientists must pull for AI’s supposedly objective decision making. She presents the good and the bad: AI is good at processing vast quantities of data that humans cannot―but it’s bad at making judgments about people. AI is accurate at sifting through billions of websites to offer up the best results for our search queries and it has beaten reigning champions in games of chess and Go. But, drawing on her own research, Zweig shows how inac

An introduction to the Bayesian approach to statistical inference that demonstrates its superiority to orthodox frequentist statistical analysis.This book offers an introduction to the Bayesian approa

How productivity culture and technology became emblematic of the American economic system in pre- and postwar Germany. The concept of productivity originated in a statistical measure of output per w

How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression.Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris,

In 1959, the electronics manufacturer Stromberg-Carlson produced the S-C 4020, a device that allowed mainframe computers to present and preserve images. In the mainframe era, the output of text and im

A richly illustrated overview of the work of Neri Oxman whose design redefines computer science, digital fabrication, material science, and synthetic biology. Mediated Matter is the first comprehensive overview of Neri Oxman's groundbreaking design work. Oxman has forged a singular career across design, science, and technology over the past twenty years that includes, notably, founding the field of material ecology. Trained as both a medical doctor and an architect, she brings to design a spirit of inquiry and experimentation that includes a future-forward approach to materials--from silkworm thread to automated microrobots to a water-based fabrication platform that prints structures made from biopolymers. In her work at the MIT Media Lab, she designed products and buildings as interactive entities that are environmentally informed, biologically augmented, computationally grown, and digitally manufactured. Through richly detailed diagrams, explanatory texts, process documents, and brea

When designing a world trading system for the twenty-first century, “Keep calm and carry on” beats “Move fast and break things.”Global trade is in trouble. Climate change, digital trade, offshoring, the rise of emerging markets led by China: Can the World Trade Organization (WTO), built for trade in the twentieth century, meet the challenges of the twenty-first? The answer is yes, Robert Staiger tells us, arguing that adapting the WTO to the changed economic environment would serve the world better than a radical reset.Governed by the WTO, on the principles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), global trade rules traditionally focus on “shallow integration”―with an emphasis on reducing tariffs and trade impediments at the border―rather than “deep integration,” or direct negotiations over behind-the-border measures. Staiger charts the economic environment that gave rise to the former approach, explains when and why it worked, and surveys the changing landscape for global

A comprehensive introduction to the field of autonomous robotics aimed at upper-level undergraduates and offering additional online resources.Textbooks that provide a broad algorithmic perspective on the mechanics and dynamics of robots almost unfailingly serve students at the graduate level. Introduction to Autonomous Robots offers a much-needed resource for teaching third- and fourth-year undergraduates the computational fundamentals behind the design and control of autonomous robots. The authors use a class-tested and accessible approach to present progressive, step-by-step development concepts, alongside a wide range of real-world examples and fundamental concepts in mechanisms, sensing and actuation, computation, and uncertainty. Throughout, the authors balance the impact of hardware (mechanism, sensor, actuator) and software (algorithms) in teaching robot autonomy. Features:Rigorous and tested in the classroomWritten for engineering and computer science undergraduates with a soph

Over the last half century, "smartness"―the drive for ubiquitous computing―has become a mandate: a new mode of managing and governing politics, economics, and the environment.Smart phones. Smart cars. Smart homes. Smart cities. The imperative to make our world ever smarter in the face of increasingly complex challenges raises several questions: What is this "smartness mandate?" How has it emerged, and what does it say about our evolving way of understanding―and managing―reality? How have we come to see the planet and its denizens first and foremost as data-collecting instruments? In The Smartness Mandate, Orit Halpern and Robert Mitchell radically suggest that "smartness" is not primarily a technology, but rather an epistemology. Through this lens, they offer a critical exploration of the practices, technologies, and subjects that such an understanding relies upon―above all, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The authors approach these not simply as techniques for solving pr

Selected texts that survey the full range of Kara Walker’s artistic practice, emphasizing the work itself rather than the debates and controversies around it.Kara Walker’s work and its borrowings from an iconography linked to the fantasized and travestied history of American chattel slavery has been theorized and critiqued in countless texts throughout her career. Exegeses of her work have been shaped by the numerous debates on the very debates it generated. How, then, do we approach a work that has been covered by such “thick theoretical layers”? This collection is unique in emphasizing Walker’s work itself rather than the controversies surrounding it. These essays and interviews survey Walker’s artistic practice from her early works in the 1990s through her most recent ones, from her famous silhouette projects to her lesser-known drawings and lantern shows. The texts, by art historians, curators, critics, scholars, and writers engage scrupulously with Walker’s pieces as material work

An introduction to neurorobotics that presents approaches and design principles for developing intelligent autonomous systems grounded in biology and neuroscience.Neurorobotics is an interdisciplinary field that draws on artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, computer science, engineering, psychology, neuroscience, and robotics. Because the brain is closely coupled to the body and situated in the environment, neurorobots―autonomous systems modeled after some aspect of the brain―offer a powerful tool for studying neural function and may also be a means for developing autonomous systems with intelligence that rivals that of biological organisms. This textbook introduces approaches and design principles for developing intelligent autonomous systems grounded in biology and neuroscience. It is written for anyone interested in learning about this topic and can be used in cognitive robotics courses for students in psychology, cognitive science, and computer science.Neurorobotics covers

How a web-scale network of autonomous micromanagers can challenge the AI revolution and combat the high cost of quantitative business optimization.The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is leaving behind small businesses and organizations that cannot afford in-house teams of data scientists. In Microprediction, Peter Cotton examines the repeated quantitative tasks that drive business optimization from the perspectives of economics, statistics, decision making under uncertainty, and privacy concerns. He asks what things currently described as AI are not “microprediction,” whether microprediction is an individual or collective activity, and how we can produce and distribute high-quality microprediction at low cost. The world is missing a public utility, he concludes, while companies are missing an important strategic approach that would enable them to benefit―and also give back. In an engaging, colloquial style, Cotton argues that market-inspired “superminds” are likely to be very e

Coding for a purpose: helping young people combine journalism, data, design, and code to make media that makes a difference.Educators are urged to teach “code for all”―to make a specialized field accessible for students usually excluded from it. In Code for What? Clifford Lee and Elisabeth Soep instead ask the question, “code for what?” What if coding were a justice-driven medium for storytelling rather than a narrow technical skill? What if “democratizing” computer science went beyond the usual one-off workshop and empowered youth to create digital products for social impact? Lee and Soep answer these questions with stories of a diverse group of young people in Oakland, California, who combine journalism, data, design, and code to create media that make a difference. These teenage and young adult producers created interactive projects that explored gendered and racialized dress code policies in schools; designed tools for LBGTQ+ youth experiencing discrimination; investigated facial r