• Question: What is the meaning of life in your prospective and how has your work impacted the world

    Asked by 12345 to Stefan, Anna, George, Jodi, Rob on 13 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by 653bdta49, quiethope.
    • Photo: Stefan Lines

      Stefan Lines answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Now there’s a thought provoking question! Have you seen the film The Matrix? I’m starting to think it’s like that; we’re all in some kind of computer simulation!

      My work has changed our understanding of how planets are formed. It means we might be better at knowing where to look for planets in other solar systems (and hence, planets which we might be able to live on at some point in the future, if we invent light speed travel).

      In the short term, my work demands extremely fast processing power from computers. Our work brings in money which is spent on computers which are also used by other scientists do discover cures for diseases like cancer and ebola. That’s really important!

    • Photo: Jodi Schneider

      Jodi Schneider answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      I think the meaning of life is to make things better.

      My work is about helping computers and people deal with large amounts of information. This impacts everybody!

      For instance: One new paper is published every minute: how can we summarize all this info for doctors? Our approach: automate as much as we can, and help people work together efficiently on the rest.

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