I discussed with them several things raised by Halmos (placed in the context of CS rather than just math):

• Distinction between pure and applied “math”; how it is reflected even in fields like literature (manuals vs. Shakespeare) or music (military marches vs. Mozart).
• The objective of pure “math”: generality, clean definitions, precision, elegance, logical analysis, non-trivial arguments
• How doing “math” can be 'creative' and experimental
• The necessity of commitment when it comes to research
• Also classic Halmos teachings on how to lecture and how to write

I then gave two examples of work that I have done:

• First work, on approximating independent sets in graphs
• Later collaboration on packet admission policies in networks, and how that can also be viewed as an online and distributed version of the independent set problem.

I then asked them to suggest a problem to tackle. Freysteinn brought up solid-state memories, that are arranged into banks, where writes take much longer time than reads. We discussed for a while the possible problems and formulations involved, making limited progress but energetic discussion.

EOF