The “Dragon Book,” Margaret Hamilton, and the first single-chip CPU topped our Twitter feed this past year, alongside tweets about computer science news, our research, and other topics in coding and programming. We’ve rounded up the top 16 tweets of 2016, determined by number of retweets from our audience of nearly 25,000 followers.
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1. How to accidently break a Skype bot - 982 RTs
How to accidentally break a Skype bot. https://t.co/1umz0rdl30 (h/t @Reddit) pic.twitter.com/M5QIynNKr1
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) August 4, 2016
2. RIP Marvin Minsky - 622 RTs
RIP Marvin Minsky, the founding father of AI (and our lab): https://t.co/h13LL0ttS3pic.twitter.com/lVxed0Tz8j
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) January 26, 2016
3. Why it's important to teach math - 439 RTs
Back to school! Here's why it's important to teach math. (credit @SMBCComics) pic.twitter.com/51fTlHz4je
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) September 7, 2016
4. Women program the 1st computer - 389 RTs
70 years ago, 6 women programmed the first digital computer: https://t.co/i4wb8r41If#Eniacpic.twitter.com/QleOWeupR5
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) February 15, 2016
5. Dragon Book - 286 RTs
How you know you're old: the "dragon book" turned 30 this year. https://t.co/3QJknM3WdP#compilers#TBTpic.twitter.com/ft8i1sHc00
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) February 25, 2016
6. First single-chip CPU - 246 RTs
45 yrs ago today Intel unveiled the first single-chip CPU. 4 bits, 16 pins & 740KHz: https://t.co/05pFComcRN #4004 pic.twitter.com/LRtw9QFBOC
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) November 15, 2016
7. What programmers say vs. what they mean - 229 RTs
What programmers say vs. what programmers mean. @Redditpic.twitter.com/o1jIU83Fwv
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) August 22, 2016
8. RIP Seymour Papert - 209 RTs
RIP Seymour Papert, 1928-2016. AI pioneer, Logo inventor & fmr director of our lab: https://t.co/YZYurc4bZ4pic.twitter.com/vjun6QCYEQ
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) August 1, 2016
9. Margaret Hamilton wins Presidential Medal of Freedom! - 204 RTs
The @MIT programmer who helped us reach the moon just won the Presidential Medal of Freedom! Congrats to #MargaretHamilton. (credit @MIT) pic.twitter.com/EUI95r5ayu
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) November 17, 2016
10. 3 laws of robotics - 196 RTs
The 3 laws of robotics, and why they're in that order. @xkcdComicpic.twitter.com/CIPadayajS
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) July 7, 2016
11. Happy bday Dennis Ritchie - 191 RTs
Happy bday to the late Dennis Ritchie, inventor of C and co-creator of Unix. https://t.co/a08zJuNY8f pic.twitter.com/YHGaButOin
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) September 9, 2016
12. Wireless emotion detection- 177 RTs
Device can tell if you're happy, sad, excited or mad using wireless signals: https://t.co/gewtyMd6Av pic.twitter.com/Ti5EDRc7az
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) September 20, 2016
13. Gov’t backdoors - 175 RTs
Gov. backdoors to encrypted data pose major risks, says report honored by @EFF: https://t.co/JNxyNKzCyx pic.twitter.com/mb5Q0nXRMN
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) August 9, 2016
14. Joe Fourier - 158 RTs
Happy bday Joe Fourier, whose 1822 equation allows us to listen to mp3s today: https://t.co/0AQNkGS8f2 pic.twitter.com/VHyuHD8qfV
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) March 21, 2016
15. National Dog Day- 159 RTs
In honor of #NationalDogDay, watch Fido the terrier meet Boston Dynamics' "Spot": https://t.co/JAI4LHJvG3pic.twitter.com/z4ozi9iJQ4
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) August 26, 2016
16. Obama publishes academic journal article - 156 RTs
Obama becomes first sitting president to publish academic journal article: https://t.co/eENoDoJMZi #obamajama pic.twitter.com/cs6Zv7agxX
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) July 12, 2016