Turing Minds

It's 2024, and the Turing Minds speaker series is back. This year's lineup features a truly EXCEPTIONAL group of computer science luminaries who have made groundbreaking contributions to the field. Our lineup this year includes 2024 Nobel Prize Winner Geoffrey Hinton, 2023 Turing Award Winner Avi Wigderson, Java creator James Gosling, TCP/IP protocol creator Vint Cerf, Robert Gentlemen co-creator of the R programming language, and more. Below is the latest list of speakers: ? Dr. Geoffrey Hinton – 2024 Nobel Prize Winner and 2018 Turing Award Winner, pioneer in artificial neural networks and deep learning. ? Dr. Avi Wigderson – 2023 Turing Award Winner and renowned theoretical computer scientist known for his work in complexity theory. ? Dr. James Gosling – Father of the Java programming language. ? Dr. Yoshua Bengio – 2018 Turing Award Winner for significant advancements in deep learning and artificial intelligence alongside Yann LeCun and Geoffrey Hinton. ? Dr. vint cerf – 2004 Turing Award Winner, recognized as one of the Fathers of the Internet for co-designing TCP/IP protocols. ? Dr. Robert Gentleman – Co-creator of the R programming language, a pivotal tool in statistical computing. ? Dr. Joseph Sifakis – 2007 Turing Award Winner for contributions to computer-aided verification through model checking. ? Dr. Leslie Valiant – 2010 Turing Award Winner for transformative work in computational learning theory and the theory of computation. ? Dr. John Hennessy – 2017 Turing Award Winner for pioneering contributions to computer architecture through the development of RISC processors. ? Dr. Michael Stonebraker – 2014 Turing Award Winner for fundamental contributions to database systems and their practical implementations. ? Dr. Don Chamberlin – Co-developer of SQL alongside Raymond Boyce, instrumental in the evolution of database query languages. Join us for a series of interactive Q&A sessions with minds that have shaped, and are shaping, the past, present, and future of computer science. RSVP at our website: turing.rsvp. Hope to see you there! — Parsa Khazaeepoul and Zack Axel

The value in talking with people is priceless. This compounds if you make it your goal to learn at least one thing from every person that you talk to, Each conversation carries a lifetime of experiences we can learn from. When Caleb John and Jamari Morrison introduced me to Jay Allen to chat, I went into it with no plan other than to pick his brain on Moondream AI. I wanted to learn from his personal experiences and perspectives and share some of mine from my time at the incubator. Our chat went long, and at one point, Jay started taking notes on what I had to say and said that "there are hundreds of early-stage startups that would want to hire somebody like you right now", the energy of the conversation got me thinking... After the conversation, my itch to get on the ground with the team and start hustling grew. A week after our first conversation, Moondream AI announced a $4.5 million dollar seed round backed by Felicis, M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, and Ascend. I spent another week or so reflecting on my two years~ at the incubator... Above all else, in it, the most important thing I realized was that: Timing and luck cannot be predicted, but they can be worked with. Even if it's the wrong time in the market, your job is to optimize and adapt to those conditions. You can maximize your chances of getting lucky by working relentlessly at your goals - remember, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. In startups, (and in life?) - success in its rawest form is simply an ability to adapt and grow. With that said, after my conversation with Jay I was presented with an opportunity, and at my second interview with the team received an offer to join them in their journey from 0 to 100. It was impossible to say no; I knew that I would learn priceless insights from hustling alongside the team and that I was prepared for it. I'm happy to formally announce that I've joined the Moondream AI team as Head of Developer Relations. I'll be working alongside Jay Allen, Vik K., Blunt Jackson, Caleb John, Jamari Morrison, and Ethan Reid relentlessly, working to make Vision AI accessible to everyone "by teaching computers to see". I sincerely thank Jacob Colker and the team at AI2 Incubator (cc: Yifan Zhang, Jenny Cronin, PhD, Vu Ha, Andy Lai, Arthur M., Oren Etzioni) for their endless mentorship and advocacy over the past two years and for supporting me and my Turing Minds initiative during my time at the incubator. This step up in my career wouldn't have been possible without the learning that came from my time there, and the doors that working on the incubators core team opened up. I'm thrilled to be joining Moondream AI, and you'll be hearing more about the cool stuff we're doing directly from me as I ramp up my posting. I'm eager to start putting together all sorts of resources; cookbooks, guides, and tutorials to help our users, no matter their skill level, get the most out of Moondream's Vision Language Modal tech. ??

Geoffrey Hinton was just awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics Join our once in a lifetime opportunity to ask questions to Dr. Hinton on November 8th at 1pm EST. https://lnkd.in/gQR_dpwa

The 2023 run of our Turing Award Speaker Series has officially concluded! View recordings of the 2023 speaker sessions below https://turing.rsvp/2023 With appreciation, Parsa Khazaeepoul and Zachary Axel.