What makes a great Software Engineer? Computer Science

What makes a great Software Engineer?
Graph-like Algorithms for Grids
A detailed example showing how to solve a tricky problem efficiently with recursion, dynamic programming and memoization
Find out how long it would take to travel down every road in your city at least once
Have there been any attempts to define computation in a theory of quantum gravity such as string theory?
Runtime and space complexity of language/standard library of different languages?
A novel derivation of E = mc^2 using information theory

Posted: 21 Oct 2018 03:23 PM PDT

So I'm pretty much asking myself this question while I'm trying to come up with my 5 year plan moving forward. Apart of that plan is the become a great Software Engineer because I like the role and the industry. So from my limited experience (I'm a recently graduated Junior Software Engineer), I've come up with this list of virtues that would make up a great Software Engineer:

Being able to architect good systems based on its need
Being able to understand customer needs and/or wants to produce software to meet those needs
Being able to understand the market to be able to supply good software to take advantage of market gaps
Maintain and upgrade software projects at any point in their life cycle
Writing maintainable code that is loosely coupled.
Writing efficient code through the use of algorithms and data structures.
Deploy systems quickly and efficiently
Use development methodologies to best advantage when possible
Work well within or as a leader of a team

So I understand some of these aren't directly related to actually writing software. Some of these are closer to IT or maybe some form of Business Analytics but I feel these are skills Engineers should have to write better code. The better you know your audience, hopefully the better code you write to try and meet their needs.

Still I'm still a Junior so I maybe either missing things or putting too much stock in something. What are you opinions on what makes a good Software Engineer? Definitely like to know cause it is something I'd like to achieve as I move through my career.

submitted by /u/ChadRStewart
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Graph-like Algorithms for Grids

Posted: 21 Oct 2018 11:08 PM PDT

I enjoy graph problems. I also, by profession, work with a lot of image processing algorithms.

Many low-level image processing algorithms can be seen as an optimization of general graph algorithms, with the constraint that graph edges are limited to 4 or 8, and the nodes are in a grid-like pattern. Extending this idea generally, I think of it as graph algorithms applied to grid-like layouts.

I am interested to know if there is some journal or book that caters specifically to such algorithms. I'd be greatly interested in finding optimizations that have been developed for algorithms on grids. Any tips?

submitted by /u/parekhnish
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A detailed example showing how to solve a tricky problem efficiently with recursion, dynamic programming and memoization

Posted: 21 Oct 2018 05:57 AM PDT

submitted by /u/korthaj
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Find out how long it would take to travel down every road in your city at least once

Posted: 21 Oct 2018 02:10 PM PDT

This came up in an interview years ago and it's plagued me ever since.

My first instinct would be to use a graph where the edges are roads and the vertices are endpoints (junctions, roundabouts or just dead ends). Weight the edges by an estimate of the time it takes to travel down the road.

But then how, from that, do you estimate the time it takes to travel down each edge at least once? I'm familiar with minimum spanning tree algorithms but they're to visit every node.

Would it be somehow possible to swap edges and vertices here and then use a MST algorithm?

I didn't get the job.

submitted by /u/Virtual_Coconut
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Have there been any attempts to define computation in a theory of quantum gravity such as string theory?

Posted: 21 Oct 2018 09:59 PM PDT

It might even be possible to compute things faster than quantum computers

submitted by /u/182637777
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Runtime and space complexity of language/standard library of different languages?

Posted: 21 Oct 2018 06:20 PM PDT

Is there a site where this is documented?

I'm talking about finding the big-O complexity (in space and runtime) of e.g. the standard sorting of STL, Java, JS/Python builtin sort etc, which is going to be O(nlogn) in most cases.

And similarly for more constructs - e.g. the ordered set in STL is a red black balanced tree hence O(logn), the cost of 'in' in Python and 'indexof' in JS (which I'm assuming are linear for arrays and O(1) for a dict) etc.

This would depend in some cases on the internal implementation if left undefined by the language spec but its going to be standard in most cases.

submitted by /u/ECrispy
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A novel derivation of E = mc^2 using information theory

Posted: 21 Oct 2018 06:44 AM PDT

Hi All,

Following up on previous posts regarding novel applications of information theory to physics and image recognition, I've come up with a novel derivation of Einstein's celebrated equation E = mc² using the model of physics I developed that is rooted in information theory and computer theory.

The note is available here:

https://www.researchgate.net/project/Information-Theory-16

The full working paper on time-dilation and information theory is available here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323684258_A_Computational_Model_of_Time-Dilation

Most notably, my model allows for particles with mass to have a velocity of c, so with this addition, I believe I've presented the outlines of a complete model of physics that resolves some of the big inconsistencies with the theory of relativity. For example, the velocity of a neutrino appears to be exactly c (see below), despite neutrinos having mass, which is verboten in the theory of relativity, but perfectly fine in the model I present in the papers above.

I also present a model of time-dilation that does not require space-time at all, even in the case of time-dilation due to gravity, which I believe could allow for simpler theories of gravity, and perhaps bridge the gap between Quantum Mechanics and existing theories of gravity.

In short, this is a model of physics that is simple, consistent with existing experiments, and allows for physics beyond the Standard Model.

Though the subject matter is clearly physics, computer scientists seem to have a better grasp on these topics, so I'd ask physicists to read these papers with an open mind.

I'm happy to answer any reasonable questions.

To avoid more repeat questions about neutrino velocities, here is some data about neutrino velocities:

"The time of flight difference between the speed of light and the arriving neutrino LAr-TPC events has been analysed. The result is compatible with the simultaneous arrival of all events with speed equal to that of light."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269312005618

Also, here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measurements_of_neutrino_speed

If someone is aware of other, more recent experiments that we should consider, please provide a link.

submitted by /u/Feynmanfan85
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