ep14 - Cleve Moler: Numerical Analyst, First MATLAB Programmer, and MathWorks Co-Founder

inControl

In this episode, we chat with Cleve Moler, a pioneer in numerical mathematics, creator of MATLAB and co-founder of MathWorks. We cover the birth of MATLAB, along with captivating stories about the origin of the iconic MathWorks logo, the enigmatic "why" command, the concept of "embarrassingly parallel computations," and the mysterious Pentium bug, among other.
Outline
00:00 - Intro
05:23 - Advice to students
05:45 - Caltech & J. Todd
07:07 - Stanford & G. Forsythe
08:27 - The MathWorks logo
11:50 - ETH Zürich & Stiefel
16:51 - Householder meetings
19:48 - LINPACK & EISPACK projects
26:10 - The birth of MATLAB
29:42 - Stanford course and the founding of Mathworks
38:40 - Embarrassingly parallel computing
39:54 - The pentium bug
43:58 - SIAM and matrix exponentials
47:19 - Future of mathematics
51:36 - Outro
Links
Cleve’s corner - https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/
Mathworks - https://mathworks.com/
History of Matlab - https://tinyurl.com/3dupkb7w
Datatron computer - https://tinyurl.com/4kmcw95r
J. Todd - https://tinyurl.com/2s432wzc
G. Forsythe - https://tinyurl.com/5583cfwx
MathWorks logo - https://tinyurl.com/yc4th7sk
E. Stiefel - https://tinyurl.com/ys4r2h96
J. Wilkinson - https://tinyurl.com/ye23bkdc
LINPACK - https://tinyurl.com/39d7rwxk
Computer solutions of linear algebraic systems - https://tinyurl.com/h9z7s342
Argonne Labs - https://www.anl.gov/
J. Dongarra - https://tinyurl.com/juzrw6y6
Embarrassingly parallel - https://tinyurl.com/yck38a4y
Pentium bug - https://tinyurl.com/4k7dt76p
19 dubious ways to compute the exponential of a matrix - https://tinyurl.com/yeyjy2bw
Perron-Frobenius theorem - https://tinyurl.com/fa59dv32
O. Taussky - https://tinyurl.com/ycke

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Acknowledgments and sponsors
This episode was supported by the National Centre of Competence in Research on «Dependable, ubiquitous automation» and the IFAC Activity fund. The podcast benefits from the help of an incredibly talented and passionate team. Special thanks to L. Seward, E. Cahard, F. Banis, F. Dörfler, J. Lygeros, ETH studio and mirrorlake . Music was composed by A New Element.