Neumann 120 Tudományos Konferencia / von Neumann 120 Scientific Conference

Miklós Rédei, London School of Economics

John von Neumann’s work
The presentation overviews some characteristic features of von Neumann's work, mentioning the scientific fields he worked in. Short video clips cut from the American Mathematical Society video about von Neumann will be presented, in which Bethe, Strauss, Goldstein and Morgenstern talk about what von Neumann did in the Manhattan project, in computer architecture, in game theory and as a government consultant. The talk will include some details of von Neumann's work on foundations of quantum mechanics.

Abraham Neyman, Professor (Emeritus) of Mathematics and member of the Federmann Center for Rationality, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The theory of stochastic games
A journey from von Neumann’s 1928 minmax theorem, which marked the birth of the mathematical theory of games, to the development of the modern theory of stochastic games.

Domokos Szász, Professor Emeritus of Budapest University of Technology

Neumann’s ergodic theorem: a small step for a genius, a giant leap for science
Explaining the macroscopic realm out of the microscopic laws governing the interactions among the constituents of matter has been a central goal of statistical physics ever since its birth in the 19th century, alongside that of probability theory. Building upon the latter, Neumann's seemingly simple 1932 ergodic theorem laid the foundations of a rigorous understanding of the former. (As a result, e. g. pressure turns up as the limit in a law of large numbers.) His work has influenced generations of mathematicians and physicists alike (including the ideas behind Lovász’ graph limit theory describing large networks). The talk will sketch some of the developments that emerged along the way.

Imre Sándor, member of HAS

The day is near - Quantum Computing and Communication
Engineering application of quantum mechanics offers a significant advance both in computer science and telecommunication. However, several challenges are open. Although promising results are published month by month, theoretical efficiency limits are still unknown and reliable implementation of quantum computers and devices suffers from unsolved problems. This talk shortly explains the novelties that originate in quantum behavior of Nature. It surveys the history and potential application areas of quantum computing and communication. Finally, the related open questions will be discussed.

Peter J. Denning, Naval Postgraduate School Computer Science, Monterey, CA, USA

Computational Thinking
The presentation shows what "computational thinking” is and what are some of the challenges around it, finally it points out what John von Neumann did with his own computational thinking.

Jim Keller, Curators Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO USA President, IEEE Computational Intelligence Society

Von Neumann, Turing, and ChatGPT: Some perspectives on the evolution of AI
This talk will celebrate the legacy of John Von Neumann’s contributions and thoughts about artificial intelligence before the invention of the computer. It will transition to Alan Turing’s involvement in the conceptual beginnings of AI, including his formulation of the Imitation Game. Large Language Models like ChatGPT are the rage today with people’s emotions spanning the spectrum, going all the way to abject fear of a robot takeover. Can ChatGPT win the Imitation Game? As President of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, I’ll present my perspective on artificial intelligence. I’ll look at how I think Dr. Von Neumann would react to modern AI. Then, based on my role as Vice Chair of the IEEE Periodicals Services and Products Board and chair of an AdHoc Committee on AI in publishing, I’ll present commonsense guidelines for the use of AI in writing, refereeing, and judging manuscripts for publications.