Gates: Lack of Computer Science Spending Is 'Kind of a Crime'

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Gates: Lack of Computer Science Spending Is 'Kind of a Crime'
By Darryl K. Taft
July 19, 2005


In a wide-ranging discussion Microsoft chairman and chief software  
architect Bill Gates offered his views on the decline in government  
funding for computer science research, hiring in the industry,  
solving hard IT problems and bringing more women into the field,  
among other issues.

At the sixth annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit at Microsoft's  
Redmond, Wash., headquarters, Gates and Princeton University Dean of  
Engineering and Applied Science Maria Klawe sat down for a chat on  
the issues facing the industry overall and the research community.

Speaking on the decline in federal government funding for research in  
computer science, Gates said, "It's kind of a crime that as computer  
science is about to solve some of the most interesting problems…and  
is becoming the toolkit for all the sciences," the government should  
pull back on some of its funding.

Gates said that although much of the funding from Defense Department  
and classified agencies has been reduced, he would expect other  
sectors of the government, such as the National Institutes of Health,  
to pick up the slack. Meanwhile Defense-related funding "has become  
shorter-term or more focused," Gates said.

"We want to be as strong an advocate as we can be that the government  
is making a mistake here," Gates said, noting that computer science  
"is the change agent of the time."


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/

Are investors betting on .Net? Click here to read more.

Moreover, Gates said there are two barriers the U.S. high tech  
industry "must be very clever about." One is the boundary between  
academia and commercial research, and the second is the barrier  
within companies between their research groups and their product groups.

Gates cited the example of Xerox Corp.'s Palo Alto Research Center  
and all the technology it spawned, which helped Microsoft and Apple  
Computer Inc. and a host of other companies.

"We're saying to companies 'You ought to invest more in R&D,' this is  
our competitive edge," he said. "If you look at our competitors—put  
aside IBM, they're sort of a special case—the investment [in R&D] is  
pretty small."

Indeed, Microsoft is concerned about staffing its research and  
product groups, Gates said.

"I'm very worried about it," Gates said. "Microsoft is trying to hire  
every great college graduate that has computer science skills…"

Microsoft taps both native-born talent and foreign talent, but Gates  
said he is frustrated that more U.S. students are not going into  
computer science. "The fastest growing major is physical education,"  
he said. "The Chinese are going to wake up and say we missed this  
opportunity," he joked.

In particular, Gates said finding recruits who have project  
management skills is difficult. Management overall is an area of  
need, he said. Indeed Gates said he welcomes students coming out of  
engineering management career tracks.

"We often have to push people into it," he said, noting that not so  
many programmers want to get involved in managing people. "We can  
promise people in this career path most of their work won't be coding."

Moreover, "the competition for somebody who's got the right  
background is phenomenal," Gates said.

In the '80s Microsoft looked at things a little differently when it  
came to hiring, Gates said. "We weren't looking for a specific skill,  
we wanted somebody who understood the field," he said.

"We look for people who have written reasonable programs—that gives  
us a sense of would they enjoy this for the long run," Gates said.  
"If they said they'd read 'The Art of Computer Programming' and they  
did all the problems, I'd hire them right away!"

Klawe chimed in: "So would I!"

Gates went on to say "What you're really teaching about design is  
pretty much the same information you used to teach 30 years ago…  
There may be some rich runtimes we could give the person to make them  
feel they are working with something cool and interesting."

Meanwhile, Gates said the industry now faces problems that need to be  
solved.

"We have an interesting dilemma coming up in that clock speeds are  
not going up much from 3 to 5 gigahertz," he said. "That turns out to  
be one of the great unsolved problems. We need brilliant people  
thinking about that problem" and others, Gates said.

One place to find new blood for the computer industry is among women.  
Klawe noted that "computer science is the only field in science and  
engineering where participation of women has gone down."

Klawe said computer science lags behind math, and "we're behind  
physics in some areas." And Klawe said Asia is not better in terms of  
numbers of women in the field.

In fact, the top two countries for women in computer science are  
Ireland and Turkey, Klawe said. "Part of that is this is the dominant  
economy in Ireland right now…and there is a lot of single-sex  
education there and girls find their way into particular programs."

In contrast, Klawe said the number of women in law and medicine has  
reached parity with men. Why? "I think there is a correlation with TV  
shows," that even when Klawe was a teenager, showed women happily at  
work in those fields. "I think computer science is a lot more  
creative than the jobs doctors and lawyers have," she said, asking  
why Hollywood doesn't do more with the IT field.

Replied Gates with a chuckle: "Say a bunch of movie cameras went over  
there to that Microsoft office building with cameras, it wouldn't be  
so exciting."

Klawe said she doubts the average law firm or medical practice would  
be so entertaining either.

Meanwhile, Gates touched on a few of his favorite Microsoft things.  
"Every student should have a Tablet," he said. Also, "the Xbox is  
sexy because it's a video game. The first year we knew we didn't have  
the credibility or the skill set to be the leader," but now Microsoft  
is in the thick of the game," he said.

Web search is another area Gates singled out. Web search "is an  
example of a competitor doing well and we have to catch them and get  
ahead of them."

In addition, "I've always had a small bias for the things we do that  
help people at work."

But Gates also spoke of how Microsoft technology helps make change in  
less developed countries in areas such as healthcare. He mentioned a  
doctor in Mozambique that uses an Access database to track the health  
history of people in the village where he works.

"This technology, because it's now very low-cost, high-volume stuff,  
can be used at a very low cost," Gates said.

Rick Rashid, senior vice president of research at Microsoft, said  
Microsoft is trying to "make sure computer science remains one of the  
top areas people want to go into." He said the past year has been a  
"really great year" for Microsoft Research," having published more  
than the division ever has before.

 <http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1838435,00.asp>


W

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/