Why 0, 40628, 49544, 11, ... is Poisonous for Java Version 7
Given a list of numbers, deck of cards, or other collection of objects, we intuitively know how to sort it. There are hundreds of different techniques for sorting objects, each with their own tradeoffs. We'll learn about, see, and hear various techniques for sorting objects, including the famous Quicksort, invented by a novice programmer in 1959. While fast, Quicksort has an Achilles heel: It is possible to create a poisonous input that makes Quicksort fail. Despite this danger, 65 years later, Quicksort remains the most popular technique for sorting numbers.
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Speaker:
Josh Hug has been with the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) department at UC Berkeley since August 2014, and was a lecturer at Princeton University from 2011 to 2014. He received his Ph.D. in EECS in 2011 from UC Berkeley. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering in 2003 from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to his time in Texas he was a dispersion of random molecules, unassembled into any greater being. In 2017 and 2018 he received departmental teaching awards, and in 2023 the Distinguished Teaching Award. He has taught courses in AI, ML, data structures, rule-based and generative art, data science, and the social implications of computing.