Even when just looking at the title, it's safe to assume that CMU is some kind of place, more specifically, an organization and/or institution. Reading the first sentence of the article -- "I'm leaving CMU to join Amazon" -- brings even more clarity, that "Leaving CMU" refers to a changing of occupation. The next sentence talks about machine learning, so it's safe to say that the author is in the AI/machine learning space, and that CMU is a place that, like Amazon, has some expertise in it.
At that point, if you haven't already guessed that CMU means "Carnegie Mellon University" -- an acronym that's not quite "MIT" but still well-known in engineering circles -- you'll get the definition in the very first Google search result, even for just "CMU"
It seems to assume people who read a CS professor's blog or a site called Hacker News will know Carnegie Mellon University, given that it has consistently hosted a top-5 CS program for the last 20+ years.
Re:Leaving CMU
by countryqt30 on Thursday June 16, 2016 @07:13AM
(#11915347)
Yeah, but it is VEEERY poor in all the other fields. World rank eighty something? xD
US News ranks it #23 of domestic schools. It has top-10 graduate programs in Compute, Mechanical, Electrical, and Environmental engineering with an overall engineering school ranking of #5. It has a top-10 fine arts program (#6). It is weaker (not in the top 25) for pure sciences and applied math, although it's #11 for discrete math and combinatorics likely due to the CS program. It's business school ranks #7 for undergrad and has top-10 graduate programs for information systems, operations, and logistics.
So, by and large, it's actually a fantastic university if you want to be an engineer, a computer scientist, an artist, or a business person. It certainly isn't "VEEERY poor" in all other fields.
I wonder what words you'd use to describe an average university, seeing as you use 'VEEERY poor' for one that's apparently rank 80ish (out of the thousands if not tens of thousands that exist).
Not all the fields; both its Drama and its Robotics programs are very good, among others.
They work well together. The drama students like wearing costumes (for example, robot costumes) and even the dumbest drama student is still way better than the typical robot AI. It's all an act.
Surely that acronym must mean something...
Clock Multiplier Unit?
Oh well, I guess we'll never know because the author never explains the intended meaning.