Post on 19-Jan-2016
Technology and Literacy:Birmingham and Alabama
Jeff Gray, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorUAB – CIS Departmentgray@cis.uab.eduhttp://www.cis.uab.edu/gray
Department of Computer and Information SciencesUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham
S o f t C o m
Software is Everywhere
• Think of some of the things that entertain and enrich your daily life
• All of the above are driven by software
• Software developers equipped with a computer science degree have opportunities to work on exciting and cutting-edge projects
Software is Everywhere• 98% of all microprocessors control devices other than desktop computers– Automobiles, airplanes, televisions, copiers, razors…
• These devices also need software and often require strong technical skills to develop
>10Mb embedded software15-20Kb 1-1.5Mb
> 1M SLOC
Meteoric Opportunities
February 15, 2005: Domain registered (youtube.com)
Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley, and Steve ChenAround 25 years old at this time
November 2005:Official Debut
100 Million Clips viewed daily; 65,000 uploads per day 20 Million visitors each month October 2006: Time Magazine Invention of the Year
Great Talk: From Concept to HyperGrowthhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nssfmTo7SZg
October 6, 2006: Google purchased for $1.65B
Alabama Technology Leaders
Jimmy WalesWikipedia FounderHuntsville Native
• The biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. • Since its creation in 2001, nearly 10 million articles in over 250 languages.• Over 680 million visitors each year; 75,000 active contributors.
The Demand for Computer Scientists
Offshore hysteria: Many companies with high paying jobs within the US are unable to fill positions with computer scientists.Source: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/top50/index.html
The Demand for Computer Scientists
Computer Science occupations are projected to grow twice as fast as the average for all occupations.
Source: http://www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2007/fall/art02.pdf
Between 2006-2016 a projected 822,000 new jobs will be available in Computer Science occupation areas in the United States alone.
The Demand for Computer Scientists
Source: http://www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2007/fall/art02.pdf
Among the fastest growing occupations, software engineers had the highest median annual salary - $79,780.
The Demand for Computer Scientists
Source: IEEE Spectrum, August 2008
Computer science has the highest engineering salary and the fastest growing salary increase.
The Demand for Computer Scientists
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 5 of the top-10 growing jobs have a computer science focus.
(Reprinted with Permission from onInvesting)
The Demand for Computer Scientists• National Job Outlook
– $56,921 is the average starting salary for computer science degrees in the class of 2008 (among top 3 highest starting salaries); 7.9% increase over 2007 offers
• Recent Birmingham Software Success Story– Founder: Dr. Stephen Brossette, UAB CIS Graduate– Director of Systems Engineering: Dr. Daisy Wong, UAB CIS Graduate– Estimated $100M acquisition price– 179% growth – tops among Birmingham companies
# hospitals using MedMined 265# of Admissions 21,940,099# of Patient days 78,483,384# of Microbiology Specimens 26,753,304
The Potential for Alabama
Source: Entrepreneur magazinehttp://www.entrepreneur.com/bestcities/midsize.html
The Potential for Alabama• Per capita, Huntsville is
one of the top five cities in the US with concentration of software developers, and #1 in terms of total engineers.
• Cummings Research Park is the second largest in the United States and the fourth largest in the World.
Huntsville
Myth of Computer Science Education
• According to the Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)1, computing is equated to learning Microsoft Word and various mechanical tasks; this is not Computer Science!
1 http://alex.state.al.us/standardAll.php?grade=9&subject=TC&summary=2
• Number of schools passing AP CS audit
Computer Science in Alabama
State Number of Schools
Alabama 3 (out of > 460)
Tennessee 16
South Carolina 18
North Carolina 28
Florida 69
Georgia 78
New Jersey 133
California 165
Texas 271
• Number of students taking AP CS exams
Georgia’s Success Story
State 2001 2007
Georgia 69 CS A exams 422 CS A exams
15 CS AB exams 107 CS AB exams
Alabama 22 CS A exams 27 CS A exams
12 CS AB exams 7 CS AB exams
High School Outreach at UAB CISMentoring for Science Fair Competitions Summer Camps
• Weekly mentoring at UAB throughout academic year; students treated like a PhD student with office space
www.cis.uab.edu/gray/Pubs/jerrod-sutton.pdf
www.cis.uab.edu/progams/campswww.cis.uab.edu/heritage
www.cis.uab.edu/progams/hspcwww.cis.uab.edu/progams/alice-festival
Programming Contest and Alice Festival
•5 weeks High School (June/July); 2 Weeks Middle School (July)•Tuition Scholarships Available•Taught by UAB Faculty•Topics include Java, robotics, graphics,
game programming, scientific computing•In 2007, over 45 students attended from
4 different states
• May 2008• 2007: 46 students
from 12 schools (Huntsville to Mobile)
• 6 problems in 3 hours• Prizes: Laptop, Xbox,
software, books, gift certificates
• Alice Film Festival!
K-12 Outreach at UAB CISField Trips to the CIS Department Lectures for Technology Clubs
•3-hour tour of the CIS department:• Several topical lectures• Over 150 students in Fall 2006• Free Pizza lunch!
http://www.cis.uab.edu/field-trips
Alabama K-12 Workshop
http://www.cis.uab.edu/programs/hsws/
• July 31, 2006; 16 state-wide participants
• Purpose: To discuss critical issues needed to raise awareness of computing in Alabama schools.
Dual/Concurrent Enrollment
CIS faculty are available to give topical lectures to classes; if interested, faculty can help bootstrap a club
• Opportunity to earn college credit in the summer by taking the CIS 201 course (Intro to Java)
• 3-4 students each summer• Potential tuition waiver in some cases• Greatly speed up mentoring experience• Prepare students for programming
contest next May• “Concurrent/Dual” enrollment http://www.cis.uab.edu/cs201
How this relates to the XO
EToys:A Squeak-based Programming Environment
Pippy:Python Programming
• All of these provide real programming environments on the XO
• Students are taught how to be technology developers…in a fun way!
• Initiates the pipeline for technology exploration throughout K-12
Scratch:Visual Programming
• $1,080,000 from National Science Foundation• In collaboration with Birmingham City Schools
– UAB CORD, Computer Science, Mathematics, Education, and Mechanical Engineering
• Three-year engagement of 60 students per year– 10th grade: Game Programming with Alice; Linear algebra– 11th grade: Java and Robotics; Advanced mathematics– 12th grade: Computer Visualization; Science fair project– Teachers: Training of BCS teachers in parallel with student camps
• Seeking students and teachers for Fall08/Summer09
ALADDIN Drawing the GENIEous out of the kidemPowering the next generation for information technology