When I first was going to college I was going to major in International Affairs. The summer before my freshman year, I read a book about fuzzy logic. (this book - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fuzzy-Logic-Revolutionary-Computer-Technology/dp/0671875353/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505092876&sr=8-1&keywords=fuzzy+logic" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Fuzzy-Logic-Revolutionary-Computer-Te...</a>
to be exact) and it so captivated me that I changed my major to electrical engineering. RIP Lofti Zadeh, you had a major impact on the course of my life, however indirectly.
I had the pleasure of having lunch with Prof Zadeh my first year in CS right around the corner from Soda Hall. I had my book out studying and he came over and talked to me and it really made me appreciate the program. Not sure about sticks out in my head so much. I think it was just the congeniality, he made me laugh and I was stressed.<p>My condolences go out to his family and friends, but he made a small impact on me at least.
RIP Lotfi Aliasker Zadeh.Form an interview "Obstinacy and tenacity. Not being afraid to get embroiled in controversy. That's very much a Turkish tradition. That's part of my character, too. I can be very stubborn. That's probably been beneficial for the development of Fuzzy Logic."
I met him once, he came for a conference at my university. During lunch he sat next to him. What had struck me was how kind, humble and considerate he was. Sometimes people of his caliber have the "I am too important or to busy to talk to some no name student like you" attitude but he was the opposite of that.
RIP. Set theory has always been an interesting topic but Prof. Zadeh stirred up the pot by proposing and strongly advocating fuzzy sets, which have opened up both new theoretical and practical paths for others to explore.
I am sad to learn Lotfi has died. He was a friend and a frequent speaker in Stanford's EE380 Colloquium. He was a inspiring pragmatist whose fuzzy logic was understandable,explainable,functioned as expected, and quickly became incorporated into real products. The competing technology, knowledge systems, was far less transparent, slow to leave the lab, and often not as effective.
179371 citations and 104 h-index [1]. But what is more important is that he founded a whole epoch in AI which is a rather rare event.<p>[1] <a href="https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=S6H-0RAAAAAJ" rel="nofollow">https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=S6H-0RAAAAAJ</a>
I'm sure that there will be a renissance of fuzzy logic, its sad to know that he will not witness it.
His character will be missed, but his contributions won't be forgotten.
Most unfortunate. I did have the pleasure of seeing him when he came to Villanova University to accept an award from the Franklin Institute.<p><a href="https://www.fi.edu/laureates/lotfi-zadeh" rel="nofollow">https://www.fi.edu/laureates/lotfi-zadeh</a>