Ricardo Baeza-Yates Interview | From Chile

Immigrant Computer Scientists

Chapters
3:25
Introduction and Biography
7:37
Act 1 - A Very Difficult Early Childhood and Schooling in Santiago (Chile), 1960s and 70s
8:42
"I got Tuberculosis... 6 months in bed and 2 years treatment"
12:44
Act 2 - Unusual Experiences as a Child, 1960s and 1970s
12:45
An unusual school curriculum
16:26
Appearing on TV Quiz Show when he was 17 years
21:37
Act 3 - First Experiences (Languages, Programming, Computers), 1960s and 1970s
26:38
Act 4 - Doing Four Simultaneous Degrees in Universidad de Chile, 1979-1986
26:39
“I wanted to find my limits.” 
30:33
Married and with a kid: During the 4 degrees
34:09
Act 5 - Pinochet’s Dictatorship and its effect on life, 1960s, 70s, 80s
37:28
When he almost became an army deserter
40:41
Religion and Career. His Mother being treated as second-class citizen because she was separated but not divorced
42:34
Politics interfering with the University
45:58
Did life change after 1989 referendum (end of Pinochet)
47:27
Did the dictatorship support computing and tech?
52:47
Act 6 - Research Stories Galore! 1980s
54:22
PhD in Waterloo: Writing papers outside his main research area
55:51
Accidentally seeking a political asylum in Canada! The Story
56:56
When Ethics forces you to create a fictional author! The story of  “Paul S. Amerins”. 
1:00:02
Act 7 - Returning to Chile after Canada PhD, 1989
1:01:40
In the wrong country for startup ideas: Doing Chile Startup Ventures in e-commerce and search
1:05:23
Act 8 - Moving from Academia to Yahoo (Spain) to become VP and manage multiple Yahoo labs, 2005
1:09:51
Act 9 - Retrospective and Perspective
1:09:52
How do you stay happy outside of work?
1:14:05
Spontaneous Idea to Write the book “Modern Information Retrieval”, which became a best-seller, late 1990s
1:15:56
Handling Failures and Rejections: The Story of the Distributed Search Architecture in Yahoo!
1:18:34
Handling Impostor Syndrome: The Story of Chess
1:23:14
Thoughts on Diversity in CS/STEM: 50% of his PhD students have been women
1:26:49
Alternate Realities: Had he been born in the US...
1:29:31
Thank you and Ending
Immigrant Computer Scientists
Ricardo Baeza-Yates Interview | From Chile
May 11, 2022 Season 1 Episode 35
Indy Gupta, Ricardo Baeza-Yates

Episode 35: Interview with Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Professor at Northeastern University (Silicon Valley). ACM Fellow and IEEE Fellow. Best-selling textbook author. Startup founder, Former Lead of Multiple Yahoo! Labs, and Faculty in Chile. Has lived and worked on 4 continents (S and N America, Europe, Asia). Grew up in Chile.