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2010 Symposia

A Ubiquity symposium is an organized debate around a proposition or point of view. It is a means to explore a complex issue from multiple perspectives. An early example of a symposium on teaching computer science appeared in Communications of the ACM (December 1989).

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Ubiquity Symposium: What is Computation

Table of Contents

 

  1. What is Computation, Editor's Introduction, by Peter J. Denning

  2. What is Computation, Opening Statement, by Peter J. Denning

  3. The Evolution of Computation, by Peter Wegner

  4. Computation is Symbol Manipulation, by John S. Conery

  5. Computation is Process, by Dennis J. Frailey

  6. Computing and Computation, by Paul S. Rosenbloom

  7. Computation and Information, by Ruzena Bajcsy

  8. Computation and Fundamental Physics, by Dave Bacon

  9. The Enduring Legacy of the Turing Machine, by Lance Fortnow

10. Computation and Computational Thinking, by Alfred V. Aho

11. What is the Right Computational Model for Continuous Scientific Problems?, by Joseph Traub

12. Computation, Uncertainty and Risk, by Jeffrey P. Buzen

13. Natural Computation, by Erol Gelenbe

14. Biological Computation, by Melanie Mitchell

15. What is Information?: Beyond the jungle of information theories, by Paolo Rocchi

16. What Have We Said About Computation?: Closing statement, by Peter J. Denning

 

Symposia

2010

  • Ubiquity symposium 'What is computation?': Computation is process

    Various authors define forms of computation as specialized types of processes. As the scope of computation widens, the range of such specialties increases. Dennis J. Frailey posits that the essence of computation can be found in any form of process, hence the title and the thesis of this paper in the Ubiquity symposium discussion what is computation. --Editor

  • Ubiquity symposium 'What is computation?': Computation is symbol manipulation

    In the second in the series of articles in the Ubiquity Symposium What is Computation?, Prof. John S. Conery of the University of Oregon explains why he believes computation can be seen as symbol manipulation. For more articles in this series, see table of contents in the http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1870596 Editors Introduction to the symposium. --Editor

  • Ubiquity symposium 'What is computation?': Opening statement

    Most people understand a computation as a process evoked when a computational agent acts on its inputs under the control of an algorithm. The classical Turing machine model has long served as the fundamental reference model because an appropriate Turing machine can simulate every other computational model known. The Turing model is a good abstraction for most digital computers because the number of steps to execute a Turing machine algorithm is predictive of the running time of the computation on a digital computer. However, the Turing model is not as well matched for the natural, interactive, and continuous information processes frequently encountered today. Other models whose structures more closely match the information processes involved give better predictions of running time and space. Models based on transforming representations may be useful.