The Future of Computing

“The Future of Computing” was the subject of an interesting talk by AUS Chief Research Officer Dr. Wei Zhao recently. The lecture, which was organized by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, was held at the College of Engineering Auditorium.

In his lecture, Dr. Zhao argued that computing problems can be classified as "easy" and "hard" based on complexity theory. This means that easy problems are those in which computation time is bounded by a polynomial of input size. He noted that the majority of computing problems fall within this category.

He further advocated for a shift in focus on “hard problems” and spoke about three main approaches. The first is the use of non-semiconductor-based physical devices, which includes initial work in quantum computers. The second is the development of heuristic algorithms with much lower complexity, which in reality is the objective of "Artificial Intelligence" development. The third approach, meanwhile, is focused on leveraging properties inherently located within input data, hence improving the computation efficiency.

The lecture was attended by a large audience comprising students, faculty members and university officials.