The Challenges Facing Computer Science for the Next Ten Years SCI 110 December 2, 2002 Dr. H.E. Dunsmore Department of Computer Science

Ubiquitous Computing "Ubiquitous" -- Existing or being everywhere, in all places at the same time We used to design software to run only on computers Now software used in cell phones, microwave ovens, tv sets, automobiles, photocopy machines, cameras, satellites,.... Software for ubiquitous computing must be small, quick, robust, error-free

Mobile Computing Internet connectivity via Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), laptops, palmtops, fingertops, cell phones, hearing aids, "glasses",.... Challenges -- Handling traffic of information flow in ether Handling volume of information to servers Providing up-to-date information

Data Compression, Bandwidth Expansion Every time we increase processing speeds and transfer speeds, demand increases Must find ways to do astounding job of... Data compression -- Can I get a 75 MByte file down to 150 bytes? Bandwidth expansion -- Can I move data at 1,000,000 times today's speeds?

Programming vs. Creating Systems With volume of software necessary in future, there will not be enough programmers Analogy - telephone system made us all telephone operators We can all become programmers via high-level software creation systems... that will require brilliant computer scientists to develop

Human-Computer Interaction Windows, icons represent significant step forward in human-computer interaction Much more needs to be done -- natural language commands, decision support systems, expert systems, learning systems

Visualization and Graphics Visualization systems are outgrowth of computer games Visualization systems can be used for training pilots, doctors, dentists, large equipment operators,.... Visualization systems can also be used to slow down fast time and speed up slow time

Bioinformatics, Computational Biology Progress has been made in this area (human genome project, cloning) using sophisticated software systems Future progress will depend on databases, blazing fast processors, better algorithms,....

Databases -- Massive Data Handling, Data Mining Now possible to collect massive databases Store and retrieve information Correlate information Sophisticated data mining What have you done every minute of today? Where are you now? What are you doing?

Security Information in files and in transit must be secure Must develop better encryption systems Must be very careful whenever data is not encrypted

Terrorism, Vandalism Need better mechanisms than accounts, passwords for access control Biometric access control (fingerprints, hand readers, facial biometrics) shows promise Terrorists might shut down Internet, interrupt e-commerce, corrupt information (like account balances, charges),.... What about turning off security mechanisms via network, shutting down hospital monitoring devices, opening prison gates,....? Must make it impossible to deliver and execute viruses

Computer Science Educators Computer Science been around since approximately years later many original CS faculty reaching retirement age Many faculty who started in 80s and 90s will retire in next 5-20 years Many students have opted for non-academic careers Pipeline running dry

Educational Paradigm Old educational paradigm: 16-week semester, classes, labs, recitations, students in lock-step Maybe this paradigm needs to be modified Replace classes with digitized "explanations" Replace labs, recitations with "chat groups" Dump 16-week semester in favor of topic modules

Educational Paradigm (2) Give students as much time as needed for each module -- 1 week or 10 weeks How do we give exams in this model? Purdue CS student could take modules from Stanford, Illinois, Carnegie-Mellon and students from those schools could take Purdue modules Administrative nightmare

Women in Computer Science In mid-1980s women constituted 30% of the professionals and students in Computer Science That percentage now down to about 10% Why? Nature of the men in CS Perceived long hours, stress, lifestyle Women have longer-term, grander-scale perspectives than men

Managing Today's systems will be remembered as the dinosaurs of the age Manage the volume, respond using triage, delete un-needed messages, file needed messages in retrievable place all sorts of information (including audio, video, documents) Must get rid of (or control better) spam