Claude spoke at my graduation commencement from CMU years ago. As an electrical and computer engineer this was such a surprise and delight, I can hardly describe.
He said that commencement speeches were an opportunity for old codgers to impart pithy maxims, but that on reflection not a single pithy maxim came to mind. He came across as a genuine, self-effacing guy, full of fun.
If you get a chance, look again at Information Theory, it's full of gems.
I'd also like to recommend The Information: A History, A Theory, a Flood. It profiles Shannon as part of a history of communication and information. Fascinating read!
I had classes with David Huffman (who worked under Fano) of Shannon-Fano coding. He was an amazing instructor.
My advisor was Glen Langdon who worked closely with Jorma Rissanen on arithmetic coding.
While not in my daily job, the knowledge spent on the challenges these relationships brought remind me of how our forbears have set foundations for us to build on.
I still deeply follow, but don't research in, data compression, information theory, etc.
The name Claude Shannon was a large part of my academic and research years.
For those intrigued, the Dover edition of An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise by Pierce is a very good book. Accessible, but with a technically credible author.
Claude spoke at my graduation commencement from CMU years ago. As an electrical and computer engineer this was such a surprise and delight, I can hardly describe.
He said that commencement speeches were an opportunity for old codgers to impart pithy maxims, but that on reflection not a single pithy maxim came to mind. He came across as a genuine, self-effacing guy, full of fun.
If you get a chance, look again at Information Theory, it's full of gems.