BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:The Nature of Entropy - Daniel Sääw\, St Catharine's College
DTSTART:20190220T190000Z
DTEND:20190220T193000Z
UID:TALK120706@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Matthew Ireland
DESCRIPTION:Fundamentally\, Computer Science is hard because the world is 
 not known to be deterministic. Clearly\, if the opposite were true\, compu
 tation could be done in advance since the right computation to carry out w
 ould be known\, and all software could be reduced to a hard-coded result.\
 n\nIn any realistic problem setting\, the lack of premature knowledge abou
 t variable outcomes is the fundamental reason that they are problems at al
 l. This is essentially what entropy is about -- it is a measure of the lac
 k of predictability of a problem space.\n\nThis talk explores the backgrou
 nd for the discussion of entropy in Computer Science\, and how it relates 
 to other uses of the term 'entropy'\, as well as giving a formal foundatio
 n of reasoning about entropy. Finally\, I show how entropy directly influe
 nces real-world challenges by examining Shannon's source coding theorem as
  well as its proof.
LOCATION:Wolfson Hall\, Churchill College
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR