The Story of Flash Fill and how it shaped me
Speaker: Sumit Gulwani – Redmond, WA, United StatesTopic(s): Human Computer Interaction , Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Natural language processing , Software Engineering and Programming , Society and the Computing Profession
Abstract
The Flash Fill feature in Microsoft Excel allows users to automate string transformations like converting “FirstName LastName” to “lastname, firstname” from just one or more examples. Flash Fill was the first release of a program synthesis technology in a mass-market product, and led to several academic recognitions and even made it into middle-school computing textbooks. In this talk, I will share various fun stories related to this work including how the idea of Flash Fill came about, the research challenges that needed to be addressed to make this idea a reality, the publishing of the Flash Fill research paper, the transfer of research into the product, and what followed. This work was also the most important turning point in my research philosophy and career and these stories speak to my learnings that are as much cultural as technical.
About this Lecture
Number of Slides: ~45Duration: 60 minutes
Languages Available: English
Last Updated:
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