RIP, Prof Winston was beloved.
Patrick Winston has died
21–30 of 86 posts
Re: Patrick Winston has died
#22Patrick Henry Winston cared so much about students.
He wouldn't just spend time crafting lectures (which you can see on OCW), but even spent time re-designing the course to try to improve learning and remove focus on the grades[0].
When students needed help, he was always by their side. When the Star Simpson events were taking place, PHW helped institute policies to better support students[1].
He was a true character. I pieced together a Twitter thread to try to show a glimpse of his personality[2]. MIT will not be the same without him.
(Disclaimer: PHW was my academic advisor for 5 years)
[0]: http://web.mit.edu/fnl/volume/204/winston.html [1]: http://people.csail.mit.edu/phw/star.html [2]: https://twitter.com/futurekennysf/status/1152262290642788362
Re: Patrick Winston has died
#23I only met him in passing when at MIT but some of my colleagues worked more closely with him. Everything I've heard is absolutely true. People sometimes get cynical and believe that nice people can't be that nice (á la Mr. Rogers), but he really was that kind.
I think the thing that speaks the most to his personality is how the brief friendship he struck up with Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas [0]:
> Will likes to see stuff at MIT whenever he is in town. This time I took him to see robots in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, wearable computing in the Media Lab, and miscellaneous cool stuff in the Precision Engineering Research Group. It wasn't hard to find people to help out.
> We walked around for three hours. Then, he was off to do soundchecks. A few hours after he learned about energy-storing inverse lakes, he and his Black Eyed Peas played to a sold-out crowd at the TD Banknorth Garden.
> I always like amazing people, like Will, who is highly creative, does interesting things, and is interested in the future. MIT attracts amazing, highly creative, interesting, interested people like honey attracts bears.
> And on top of all that, Will is a fan of my field, Artificial Intelligence. Check out the Peas Imma Be Rocking That Body video.
> Anyway, when Will and his entourage were about to leave, and all the obligatory pictures were taken, he asked, as he generally does, if I could use a few tickets for the show. “Hey, that would be great,” I said. I like the Peas, and besides, I hadn't been to a good concert since the Rolling Stones were in town in '06.
> Alas, my daughter seized the tickets. “You're nowhere near cool enough to go,” she said, “and I have some friends.” Maybe I should find a new place to buy clothes.
RIP.
Re: Patrick Winston has died
#24i wonder what it must feel like at mit with two of its titans gone (minksy and winston). are there others stepping in their place? abelson and sussman are still there. in a world where machine learning has taken over "ai", it doesn't feel there are many left who have the ability and interest in researching general artificial intelligence.
Re: Patrick Winston has died
#25RIP Professor Best teacher I've ever had, he let me audit all his classes and took me/my ideas seriously at all times. And would grade my papers even though I was never an official student, or his his words "a paying customer." First Minsky now Patrick. RIP and perhaps they are both back in touch. ;(
Instead of thinking about how they are both back in touch, why not assume a step further. They are in touch, and they are hoping that you are doing _______ with the most passion [in which they have yet to witness ;)].
Now fill that in and use it as adrenaline to accomplish your next (big, relatively) feat.
Your thoughts?
RIP PW
Re: Patrick Winston has died
#26I only ever "knew" him from the OCW lectures on Youtube, but he seemed like a real class act. And certainly a major contributor to the advancement of CS and AI. He will be missed.
R.I.P., Mr. Winston.
Re: Patrick Winston has died
#27His first AI book, along with Bertram Raphael’s book Mind Inside Matter, were the two books that got me charged up about AI and changed my career and my life.
Patrick Winston will be missed.
Re: Patrick Winston has died
#28RIP, my first intro to Winston was when I was a lad in high schools and got the LISP book that also goes by the name "Winston & Horn" Still an excellent LISP book.
Re: Patrick Winston has died
#29I only met him in passing when at MIT but some of my colleagues worked more closely with him. Everything I've heard is absolutely true. People sometimes get cynical and believe that nice people can't be that nice (á la Mr. Rogers), but he really was that kind. I think the thing that speaks the most to his personality is how the brief friendship he struck up with Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas [0]: > Will likes to…
Wow. Clicked [0] and was lost.
"Mutual respect is the stuff from which great education emerges."
Re: Patrick Winston has died
#30I'm very saddened by this loss. I took him for both 6.034 (artificial intelligence) and his survey course 6.803 (the human intelligence enterprise). Some memories:
1. I still use VSNC (you can read more about it here: http://blog.pptstar.com/?p=441) as a simple model for delivering technical talks. As a coincidence I has already been planning on giving a meta talk about this to my team next Friday. He cared more about, and spoke more about, presentation skills than every other lecturer I had at MIT, combined.
2. He was also the only professor I heard speak about the value of leadership skills and how they can be cultivated.
3. He really did care about his students. I remember his saying to help us get over imposter syndrome, "At MIT, 5% of students think it's too easy, 10% of students think it's just right, and 85% think that at any moment they're going to be found out."
4. I still remember his definition of intelligence as something you almost understand. He would tell the story of giving a preview of an upcoming lecture where they would write a program to do differential calculus. A student came up to him and said "There is no way a computer could ever do that!" After the lecture the same student came up to him and said "That wasn't really AI. The program just does it the way I do it!"