NOSTALGIA UK
Dr. Ahmad and 6 words are too many (1994)
Dr. Ahmad was another lecturer I have never forgotten—the person who first introduced me to the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly natural language processing (NLP). At the time, he was a well-regarded researcher in the field, with numerous PhD students under his guidance, all deeply immersed in the challenge of trying to make machines understand, interpret, and generate human language. This was about four years before the birth of Google, and ELIZA was still widely recognised in AI (for those unfamiliar with "her," feel free to Google it now!).
Dr. Ahmad was Pakistani, and from his accent, it was clear he had come to the UK later in life. I assumed he had come to the UK for his studies before eventually becoming a lecturer at the university. He always seemed incredibly busy—never walking at a leisurely pace, always rushing from one room to the next. It was difficult to catch even five minutes of conversation with him. Whenever he stepped into the classroom, he carried an air of urgency, as if eager to get through the lecture and move on to his next responsibility.
Yet, there was no doubt about his passion for AI, especially natural language processing. One thing from him has stuck with me over the years—his constant reminder that a well-constructed sentence should contain no more than six words (or ... maybe eight). Any longer, he warned, ambiguity would start creeping in. At the time, striking a balance between clarity and naturalness in language was a critical challenge in NLP—after all, this was still the early days of the field.
For my final-year project, upon returning from my industrial placement, I chose Dr. Ahmad as my supervisor—a sketch and story that will come later.
I learned so much from him about AI, and the guidance he provided during that final year was invaluable. I also fondly remember the wonderful dinner that Faeez, Leni, and I shared with him, his wife, and his son Waqas at their home near campus. That invitation meant a lot—thank you again for the invitation.