N1005 IBM Research: synapse

Top IBM Research Stories of 2014

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A Guinness World Record. A new kind of plastic. Oh, and a chip modeled after the human brain. Here are some of our most popular stories in 2014. It’s been a busy year! Thank you for reading, sharing, and commenting on them. But most of all, thank you for being curious about pushing the limits of science and technology. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://ibmresearchnews.blogspot.com/2014/03/help-set-guinness-world-records-title.html">Help Set a Guinness World Record</a></span></b></h2><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">IBM scientists partnered with National Geographic Kids to set a Guinness World Records title for the world's smallest magazine cover.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ucGbmsg5FvA" width="560"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><br /><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/03/smarter-planet.html">Meet Maria Dubovitskaya: Another Person for a Smarter Planet</a></span></b></h2></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/files/2014/03/Maria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://asmarterplanet.com/files/2014/03/Maria.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ballet or mathematics? Most ordinary eight year olds girls would probably choose ballet, but Maria Dubovitskaya was anything but an ordinary eight year old.</span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">One day, after ballet lessons in the Moscow suburb of Domodedovo,  Maria’s parents were running a little late. She heard other children,  mostly boys her age, clacking away on IBM 286 PC keyboards in the  classroom next door. Peeking through a crack in the door Maria was  overcome with curiosity. </span></i><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/05/ibm-researchs-jamie-garcia-fantastic-plastic.html">IBM Research's Jamie Garcia and Her Fantastic Plastic</a></span></b></h2></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">When scientists succeed at IBM Research, they tend to stay. <a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2013/06/ibm-fellow-robert-dennard-wins-kyoto-prize.html">Robert Dennard</a>, the inventor of the DRAM, for instance, had been at IBM for 56 years when he retired earlier this year. But there are researchers at the opposite end of the seniority spectrum who are already making their marks—on IBM and the world.</span></i><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uLqJ9IurF78" width="560"></iframe><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/02/project-lucy-confronting-africas-grand-challenges-watsons-help.html">Project Lucy: Confronting Africa’s Grand Challenges, with Watson's Help</a></span></b></h2><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Amid the chaos of civil war, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/abdigani-m-diriye/10/a7/96b">Abdigani Diriye</a>’s family fled Somalia in a rush when he was just five years old. Diriye and his sister escaped to London in the care of a 19-year-old aunt; his father flew to Sweden; and his mother made her way through the battle zone to Kenya.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/O_VGuEkzsOk" width="560"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><br /><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/04/big-data-behind-quicken-loans-billion-dollar-bracket-challenge-yahoo-sports.html">The Big Data Behind Your College Basketball Brackets</a></span></b></h2></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/files/2014/04/ASPcollege_hoops.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://asmarterplanet.com/files/2014/04/ASPcollege_hoops.jpg" width="144" /></a></div><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Every year, top U.S. men’s college basketball teams enter a month-long tournament for a chance to be crowned champion. And it always stirs up fan and pundit predictions to pick potential winners of all 63 games. </span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">To really give the pot a stir this year, Berkshire Hathaway, Quicken Loans and Yahoo Sports teamed up to create the <a href="https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/quickenloansbracket/challenge/?qls=BDB_B14qlb03.qlredirect">Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge</a>. Choose every match up correctly and win $1B. </span></i><br /><br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ibm_research_zurich/13642593765/in/set-72157643436869903" target="_blank"><i>(download a "Bracketology" infographic)</i></a><br /><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://ibmresearchnews.blogspot.com/2014/01/graphene-circuit-ready-for-wireless.html#fbid=3cXVy7Ijyhs">Graphene Circuit Ready for Wireless</a></span></b></h2><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Graphene, one of the world’s thinnest electronic nanomaterials, has long held the promise as a wonder material in everything from flexible touchscreens to super-fast circuits. It’s that interest in semiconductors that led my team to build the world’s most advanced, fully functional integrated circuit made of wafer-scale graphene – 10,000 times better performance than previously reported efforts.</span></i><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdJNuPPj-eZcAVS4ezwdv5-RSrbA9P-hjp4Tb94ovROn6M_uruTFd9j07j3fhqMLJKTXRms1HXK9N7J5RKiCwDVOatkDUG12o0OYoWgdS8bV-GjcxXCQ4ZhXLBC1gFUsWp9kkT2qciW4/s1600/graphene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdJNuPPj-eZcAVS4ezwdv5-RSrbA9P-hjp4Tb94ovROn6M_uruTFd9j07j3fhqMLJKTXRms1HXK9N7J5RKiCwDVOatkDUG12o0OYoWgdS8bV-GjcxXCQ4ZhXLBC1gFUsWp9kkT2qciW4/s1600/graphene.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tilted view scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image revealing the integration of key<br />components in IC with enlarged view showing the advanced gate structure<br />of the graphene field-effect transistors (GFET). Inset image shows crosssectional<br />SEM of embedded T-shaped gate. Scale bar, 500 nm.</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://ibmresearchnews.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-algorithms-of-show-business_14.html">The Algorithms of Show Business</a> </span></b></h2></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDU2Z6p_pi-N5XjH6ctFRlKnK5qTVSKqTthGXNfbP9UNnjMH544O2wqmw4L8P3foQN-9gKXWfmvtZGYHQnM1MrMZy4pOEBfohTLmeWFGHrVgIuBinRPdHny66UgNou-uGEwo-YMgkb5UI/s1600/vinith+misra+Headshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDU2Z6p_pi-N5XjH6ctFRlKnK5qTVSKqTthGXNfbP9UNnjMH544O2wqmw4L8P3foQN-9gKXWfmvtZGYHQnM1MrMZy4pOEBfohTLmeWFGHrVgIuBinRPdHny66UgNou-uGEwo-YMgkb5UI/s1600/vinith+misra+Headshot.jpg" /></a></div><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">“We need to talk.” Generally not something you want to hear from your PhD advisor. But when it was followed by, “Have you heard of HBO?”, then-Stanford student, now-IBM Watson engineer Vinith Misra was intrigued (and as a film enthusiast, a little amused). </span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">His advisor, <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/%7Etsachy/" target="_blank">Dr. Tsachy Weissman</a>, had been contacted by the technical advisor for HBO’s <a href="http://www.hbo.com/silicon-valley#/" target="_blank">Silicon Valley</a> in 2013 to help the show’s creators develop fictionalized compression algorithms, and he wanted to bring Vinith on board.</span></i><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/05/greek-mythical-hero-storage-class-memory.html">The Greek Mythical Hero of Storage Class Memory</a></span></b></h2></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/files/2014/04/IoannisKolsidas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://asmarterplanet.com/files/2014/04/IoannisKolsidas.jpg" width="153" /></a></div><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Theseus was a great hero in Greek mythology known for qualities such as strength, courage and wisdom. </span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Therefore it’s no surprise that a team of Greek IBM scientists in Zurich and Professor Theodore Antonakopoulos and his team from the University of Patras, Greece, borrowed his name as a codeword for a groundbreaking new memory technology, which combines flash with <a href="http://www.zurich.ibm.com/news/11/pcm.html">phase change memory</a> (PCM) on a PCI-e card. Initial tests have clocked 12x and 275x improvements — and that’s no myth.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://ibmresearchnews.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-energy-to-innovate.html">The Energy to Innovate</a></span></b></h2><h2></h2></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Tanuja Ganu grew up in a small town in India about 400 kilometers south of Mumbai, where – like much of the country – energy outages happen all the time. </span><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /><br /><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“The voltage was often so low that the lights were dim and the refrigerator would burn out. </span><br /><br /><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“I studied for exams by candlelight, and endured summers without working fans. To deal with this as children, we learned to time-shift critical things we needed electricity for – like cooking and cleaning," Tanuja said.</span></span></i><br /><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZuyJ4nKzPx8" width="560"></iframe> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2014/03/cooking-computers.html">See What's Cooking in the Cognitive Kitchen</a></span></b></h2><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Raise your hand if you have interests outside of your day job. Probably most everyone, I imagine. Now, how often do they serendipitously collide? Probably not that often, right? But that’s what happened for me two years ago when I applied my computer science skills to my love of the culinary arts as part of IBM’s <a href="http://research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/computational-creativity.shtml">Cognitive Cooking</a> project.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/iTc3O0IqYwk" width="560"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><br /><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://research.ibm.com/articles/chipchallenge.shtml#fbid=sxOPNH4BWcY">Tackling tomorrow’s chip grand challenge today</a></span></b></h2></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">Seven nanometers. That’s slightly longer than the 2.5 nm circumference of a DNA double helix. And 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. It’s also the miniscule dimension that future semiconductors must push past to keep up with today’s computing demands being put on cloud, big data and cognitive systems.</span></i><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://research.ibm.com/software/IBMResearch/image/chip_header_graphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://research.ibm.com/software/IBMResearch/image/chip_header_graphic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">[<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ibm_research_zurich/14615893365/">Download infographic</a>]</div><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><h2><b><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/neurosynaptic-chips.shtml#fbid=sxOPNH4BWcY">Brain Power: The SyNAPSE “cognitive” chip</a></span></b></h2></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><i><span style="font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt;">What is a cognitive chip? The latest SyNAPSE chip, introduced in August of 2014, has the potential to transform mobility by spurring innovation around an entirely new class of applications with sensory capabilities at incredibly low power levels. This is enabled by a revolutionary new technology design inspired by the human brain.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://research.ibm.com/software/IBMResearch/image/brain_banner_infographic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="87" src="http://research.ibm.com/software/IBMResearch/image/brain_banner_infographic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/brainpower/"><b>Infographic: Brain Power!</b></a></div></div>

A Guinness World Record. A new kind of plastic. Oh, and a chip modeled after the human brain. Here are some of our most popular stories in 2...

INFORMS Recognizes IBMer with John von Neumann Theory Prize

1:14 PM N1000 0

<br /> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/JohnvonNeumann-LosAlamos.gif/220px-JohnvonNeumann-LosAlamos.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/JohnvonNeumann-LosAlamos.gif/220px-JohnvonNeumann-LosAlamos.gif" width="153" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John von Neumann (wikipedia)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">In the 1940s, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann">John von Neumann</a> developed the computer architecture that established the design, as well as the programming and theories, for how modern computers operate to this day. His work has inspired many others to build and innovate on top of these concepts. He also laid the foundation of game theory, and did research in physics, biology and statistics.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">To recognize his contributions, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) annually awards a “scholar who has made fundamental, sustained contributions to theory in operations research and the management sciences” with the <a href="https://www.informs.org/About-INFORMS/News-Room/Press-Releases/Megiddo-wins-von-Neumann-Theory-Prize-2014">John von Neumann Theory Prize</a>. This year’s award went to <a href="http://theory.stanford.edu/~megiddo/bio.html">Nimrod Megiddo</a> of IBM Research - Almaden.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">INFORMS cites that prize is for “fundamental contributions across a broad range of areas of operations research and management science, most notably in linear programming, combinatorial optimization, and algorithmic game theory.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/s/www.informs.org/design/user_inform/images/299x76xIOL-header.jpg.pagespeed.ic.L70ogKsgpj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/s/www.informs.org/design/user_inform/images/299x76xIOL-header.jpg.pagespeed.ic.L70ogKsgpj.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_programming">Linear Programming</a>, a method to achieve the best outcome in a mathematical model whose requirements are represented by linear relationships, is applied across engineering, business and economics for modeling transportation, energy, telecommunication, manufacturing, agriculture, and military systems. More generally, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_research">Operations Research</a>is a discipline that deals with the application of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. It seeks to improve the performance of systems by optimizing their designs and operational decision making. </span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">"[Megiddo's] work on the probabilistic analysis of the simplex method, alone and with Adler, established some of the most important results in the area, including the best (quadratic) bound for the complexity of a complete parametric pivoting method and an explanation of why this is possible for the lexicographic version but not the standard Lemke perturbation." </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">[He] was an early leader in the theory of interior-point methods, and laid the framework for the development of primal-dual methods in his seminal paper on pathways to the solution."</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">Megiddo’s work has also played a role in highlighting the question, still unresolved today, of whether there is a strongly polynomial algorithm for linear programming.”</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">In algorithmic game theory, Megiddo has done ground breaking work that anticipated by two decades the more recent blossoming of the field."</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;"></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">Read the entire citation, <a href="https://www.informs.org/Recognize-Excellence/INFORMS-Prizes-Awards/John-von-Neumann-Theory-Prize">here</a>.</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">About Nimrod Megiddo</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">Megiddo joined IBM in 1984. His research is in optimization theory, machine learning, and game theory, with applications to database systems, storage systems, and most-recently to <a href="http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/developercloud/user-modeling.html">IBM Watson User Modeling Service</a> and <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/neurosynaptic-chips.shtml#fbid=LbsG_SAgfOf">neuromorphic computing</a>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; tab-stops: -.5in 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "HelvNeue Light for IBM",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helv;">Megiddo also taught various courses in operations research, statistics, and game theory at Tel Aviv University, Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, and Stanford University. He holds 58 patents. Megiddo is the editor-in-chief of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Discrete Optimization,</i> a former editor-in-chief of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mathematics of Operations Research</i>, and a member of the editorial boards of several other research journals. </span></div>

informs john von neumann Nimrod Megiddo synapse INFORMS Recognizes IBMer with John von Neumann Theory Prize

John von Neumann (wikipedia) In the 1940s, John von Neumann developed the computer architecture that established the design, as well as th...