CS4HS 2012

Why Computer Science?

Ed LazowskaBill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Washington

August 2012

Forty years ago …

[Peter Lee, DARPA, and Pat Lincoln, SRI]

With forty years hindsight, which had the greatest impact?

Unless you’re big into Tang and Velcro (or sex and drugs), the answer is clear …

And so is the reason …

EXPONENTIALS US

1

10

100

1,000

10,000

100,000

1,000,000

10,000,000

100,000,000

1,000,000,000

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Num

ber o

f hos

ts

Credit: Intel Corporation

The past thirty years …

The past thirty years …

The past thirty years …

The past thirty years …

The most recent ten years …

Search Scalability Digital media Mobility eCommerce The Cloud Social networking and

crowd-sourcing

In the next ten years,we’ll put the “smarts” in …

Smart homes Smart cars Smart bodies Smart robots Smart science

(confronting the data tsunami)

Smart crowds and human-computer systems

Smart interaction (virtual and augmented reality)

Computer science has a rich intellectual agenda Advances in CS accelerate the pace of discovery in nearly

all other fields Advances in CS drive economic growth

Not just through the growth of the IT industry, but through productivity growth across the entire economy

Advances in CS touch everyone’s lives – they change the way we live, work, learn, and communicate

Advances in CS are inextricably linked to our ability to address our major national challenges

Advances in CS have major public policy implications Ranging from e-voting and identity management to the nature

and global spread of democracy “Computational Thinking” is essential for all 21st century

citizens!

Computer science is unique in its impact and importance

CORE CSE

machine learning

natural language processing HCI

cloud computing

big data

mobile

sensors

CORE CSE

machine learning

natural language processing HCI

cloud computing

big data

mobile

sensors

Security andPrivacy

Technology for Development

Medicine andGlobal Health

Education

ScientificDiscovery

Transportation

Neural Engineering

Elder CareAccessibility

Interacting with the Physical World

CORE CSE

And there are jobs out the wazoo

Annualized Job Openings vs. Annual Degrees Granted

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

Com

pute

rsc

ienc

e

Eng

inee

ring

Life

sci

ence

s

Phy

sica

lsc

ienc

es

Soc

ial

scie

nces

Annualized job openings, 2008-2018 (BLS data)

Degrees granted, 2006 (NSFdata)

Is this a great time, or what?!?!