Hamming, Learning to Learn: Digital Filters II, 28 April 1995 [video]

Authors
Hamming, Richard W.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
1995-04-28
Date
1995-04
Publisher
Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en
Abstract
When digital filters first arose they were involved merely as a variant of the classical analog filters; people did not see them as essentially new and different. This is exactly the same mistake that was made endlessly by people in the early days of computers. I was told repeatedly, until I was sick of hearing it, that computers were nothing more than large, fast desk calculators. "Anything you can do by a machine you can do by hand." So they said. This simply ignores the speed, accuracy, reliability, and lower costs of the machines versus humans. Typically a single order of magnitude change (a factor to 10) produces fundamentally new effects, and computers are many, many times faster than hand computations. Those who claimed that there was no essential difference never made any significant contributions to the development of computers. Those who did make significant contributions viewed computers as something new to be studied on their own merits and not as merely more of the same old desk calculators, perhaps souped up a bit.
Type
Video
Description
"The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn" was the capstone course by Dr. Richard W. Hamming (1915-1998) for graduate students at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey California. This course is intended to instill a "style of thinking" that will enhance one's ability to function as a problem solver of complex technical issues. With respect, students sometimes called the course "Hamming on Hamming" because he relates many research collaborations, discoveries, inventions and achievements of his own. This collection of stories and carefully distilled insights relates how those discoveries came about. Most importantly, these presentations provide objective analysis about the thought processes and reasoning that took place as Dr. Hamming, his associates and other major thinkers, in computer science and electronics, progressed through the grand challenges of science and engineering in the twentieth century.
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NPS Report Number
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Format
Duration: 45:08 Filesize: 883.7 MB
Citation
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.