Gathering eminent minds to deliberate on the forthcoming landscape of computation at CSAIL
Celebrating 50 Years of Computer Science Innovation: MAC50 at MIT
MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) recently marked a significant milestone with the conference "MAC50: The Future of Computing". The event celebrated 50 years since "Project MAC", an MIT program that aimed to make computers an everyday utility.
The conference featured talks by leading thinkers in the field, including the founders of iRobot, Ethernet, and Google's Boston Dynamics. Notable speakers included J.C.R. Licklider, the person who started the MAC project at MIT in 1960 and one of the founders of computer research at the institution.
Rodney Brooks, a former director of the MIT AI Lab and the co-founder of iRobot, discussed the difficulties of developing dexterous robotic hands. Brooks was also presented with a special "Founder's Award" for founding Project MAC.
Tom Leighton, an MIT professor and co-founder of Akamai Technologies, discussed technical challenges in providing high-quality video and instant web performance. Leighton's company, Akamai, is known for its content delivery network services.
The symposium also highlighted some of MIT's biggest computing breakthroughs. For instance, Bob Metcalfe, a co-inventor of Ethernet and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, spoke about his work on Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet, at MIT.
CSAIL Director Daniela Rus expressed optimism about the potential of computing to solve issues over the next decade. She spoke about the ease of operating driverless cars and programming robots. Rus also emphasised the importance of computing in various fields, including aerospace, architecture, genomics, and musicology, as highlighted by MIT President L. Rafael Reif.
The conference also paid tribute to Robert Fano, a long-time MIT researcher and professor, who faced opposition when he advocated for computer science as an important competence for MIT to develop. Fano's contributions to Project MAC were significant, and his work has had a lasting impact on the field.
In attendance were multiple former directors of CSAIL and its predecessors, including Anant Agarwal, Ed Fredkin, Patrick Winston, and Victor Zue. Their presence underscored the continuity and importance of CSAIL's research over the past five decades.
Reif stated that subtracting CSAIL would remove a central part of MIT's intellectual character, many of its most important analytical tools, and a fundamental way of thinking about solving problems for society. This sentiment was echoed by the attendees, who celebrated the past achievements of CSAIL and looked forward to the future of computing at MIT.
