Why Computer Science? Ed Lazowska Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington October

Forty years ago … Credit: Peter Lee, Microsoft Research

With forty years hindsight, which had the greatest impact? z Unless you’re big into Tang and Velcro (or sex and drugs), the answer is clear … z And so is the reason … EXPONENTIALS US

,546 16,777,216 4,294,967,296 18,446,744,073,709,600,000 Exponentials are rare – we’re not used to them, so they catch us unaware

z Processing capacity z Storage capacity z Network bandwidth z Sensors z (Astonishingly, even algorithms in some cases!) Every aspect of computing has experienced exponential improvement

z Constant capability at exponentially decreasing cost z Exponentially increasing capability at constant cost You can exploit these improvements in two ways

z Ditto the Internet Number of hosts In the past 20 years ( ), the number of Internet hosts and the number of transistors on a die each have increased 2000x!

The most recent ten years … z Search z Scalability z Digital media z Mobility z eCommerce z The Cloud z Social networking and crowd-sourcing

In the next ten years, we’ll put the “smarts” in … z Smart homes z Smart cars z Smart bodies z Smart robots z Smart science (confronting the data tsunami) z Smart crowds and human- computer systems z Smart interaction (virtual and augmented reality)

Advances in computer science are central to tackling every national and global challenge machine learning natural language processing HCI cloud computing big data mobile sensors Security and Privacy Technology for Development Medicine and Global Health Education Scientific Discovery Transportation Neural Engineering Elder Care Accessibility Interacting with the Physical World CORE CSE

And there are jobs out the wazoo: nationally … Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Science & Technology Job Growth ( ) 85% 70% 60%

And there are jobs out the wazoo: nationally … Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Science Foundation Annualized Job Openings vs. Annual Degrees Granted ( )

And there are jobs out the wazoo: and regionally … 19 Source: Washington State HECB, SBCTC, and WTECB: A Skilled and Educated Workforce, 2011 Update. Analysis of Employment Security Department and IPEDS data.

UW Computer Science & Engineering z Ranked among the top 10 programs in the nation (of >200) y MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Illinois, Washington, Princeton, Texas, Georgia Tech, Caltech, Wisconsin, Michigan, UCLA, UCSD … z Two undergraduate programs y Computer Science (College of Arts & Sciences) y Computer Engineering (College of Engineering) z > 300 degrees per year y ~200 Bachelors (growing to ~250) y ~85 Masters y ~25 Ph.D.

z Admission y “Regular Admission ” for UW students who have fulfilled a set of prerequisites (math, physical sciences, computer science, etc.) x Offered twice each year – for autumn and spring quarters x ~70% of majors y “ Accelerated Admission ” for students who do extremely well in our introductory courses x ~15% of majors y “ Direct Admission ” for top high school students x Offered in the spring, for autumn quarter, coordinated with the UW Admissions Office and the UW Honors Program x ~15% of majors

z Extraordinary students y Fully 1/3 of the UW class medalists since 2000 have been CSE majors x Our “fair share” would be 2% z A deep commitment to providing a top-tier undergraduate education y Winner of 5 UW Distinguished Teaching Awards y Winner of the inaugural UW Brotman Award for Instructional Excellence y In a typical quarter, CSE has 2/3’s of the top-performing instructors in the 10-department UW College of Engineering, according to student course evaluations x 9 of the top 10 instructors in the most recent quarter

z We produce students who can design and build stuff y Emphasis on teamwork and design y 80% of undergraduates do at least one internship y 50% of undergraduates participate in faculty-guided research x #1 school in the nation in students recognized in the past 10 years in the Computing Research Association “Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Award” competition y A top-5 supplier of students to Amazon.com, Google, and Microsoft (along with MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon) y The predominate supplier to many leading smaller firms headquartered here

z Tech companies that can be choosy, choose CSE

Why a research-intensive university?

z What can we uniquely do? y Get students into the lab y Make them our partners in discovery y Prepare them for life-long learning at the forefront of knowledge and society x There is no field in which this is more important!

z Erin Earl y Overlake School -> Robinson Center Transition School -> Robinson Center Early Entrance Program y Triple major in Music, Piano Performance, Computer Science y UW Dean’s Medal for the Arts y Indiana University Conservatory (3 months) y Google (5 years) y Harvard Law School y Clerkship in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia y -> Clerkship in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

z Raymond Zhang y Robinson Center Transition School -> Robinson Center Early Entrance Program y Double major in Biology, Computer Science x Undergraduate research in computational biology y Goldwater Scholar y Piano performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Benaroya Hall y 2013 UW Dean’s Medal in Engineering y -> UW CSE 5 th year Masters Program

z Christophe Bisciglia y Gig Harbor High School y UW CSE y Google (5 years) y Cloudera, Inc. (Founder) (2.5 years) y WibiData (Founder and CEO)

z Emma (Lynch) Nixon y Ballard High School ‘07 y UW CSE ‘11 x Undergraduate research on Games for Learning – Refraction x SDE intern at Microsoft y SDE at Microsoft

Implications for K-12 education Computer Science in K-12, 1983 IBM PC XT 4.77 MHz KB RAM PC DOS 2.0

Computer Science in K-12, page report 15 page index

z In 9 out of 10 high schools nationwide, computer science is not offered z In 36 of the 50 states, computer science does not count towards the math or science graduation requirement Yet computer science – “computational thinking” – is a key capability for just about every 21 st century endeavor

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