as calculators for business and scientific applications. We were using it, however, as
a personal augmenter. The hypertext
system we built was used in the early
1970s for a poetry class, where someone would enter a poem and invite
commentary about it. This was like creating a wiki, only 35 years earlier.
[CoNtINUeD fRom P. 128]
how different is it teaching computer
science now than it was five, 10, or 20
years ago, given how fast-shifting the
landscape is?
what was your philosophy when it
came to chairing the department?
First, it’s about leadership, not administration. Be a leader; hire an administrator. Second, it’s about people
and making them productive. You
provide a shield that allows the people
working for you to focus on their research and teaching. Third, it’s about
students—they’re the multiplicative
factor. If you’re at a university and
you’re not engaged with students,
you’re in the wrong line of work—go to
an industrial research lab.
with respect to your role in the eScience
Institute, how are you working to take
research about disruptive technologies
and make a real-world impact?
We are undergoing a revolution in
science. The growth of data sensors
has been phenomenal. They’re everywhere—in cell phones, in telescopes,
“i’m surrounded
by people who can
be counted on
to produce. i try
to be one of those
people, too.”
in gene sequencers, in highways and
buildings and bridges, on the sea floor,
in forest canopies, on the Web. In the
old days, if you wanted to study the creation of a social clique, for example,
you’d pay some undergraduates $6
to participate in a focus group during
their lunch break. Now, you have millions of such cliques that can be researched through social media. The
challenge of research before was finding enough data. Now, we’re drowning
in it. This is a new turn of the crank in
the field of computational science—
it’s about the data, not the cycles.
With the eScience Institute, we’re
focusing on finding better ways to pursue the collection and exploration of
all of this data. We want to apply this
knowledge first to the needs of the research scientists here at the university—the biologists and astrophysicists
who need to resolve big-data exploration problems to do their jobs. Then,
we can create solutions for people
around the world.
You’re also chair of the Computing
Community Consortium (CCC). what
are the primary efforts the CCC is most
involved with now? and what do you
hope to accomplish with these efforts?
Let’s face it, as computer scientists,
we can come across as a bit geeky. Our
neighbors don’t understand what we
do. But what we do greatly impacts the
issues that affect our neighbors, like
the improvement of our transporta-
tion systems, energy efficiency, health
care, education, open government, cy-
bersecurity, and discovery in all fields.
As computer scientists, we have a rich
intellectual agenda with the capability
to have an enormous breadth of im-
pact upon daily lives. We need to do
a better job of telling that story, and a
better job of garnering the resources to
do the research that will enable further
breakthroughs. That’s what the CCC
seeks to do.
You also seek to increase the role of
computer science in K– 12, within the
Science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (Stem) education
Coalition learning framework. Kids
spend plenty of time with computers
these days, but it seems more voy-euristically focused, with lots of social
networking and watching Youtube
clips. how do you get them to take a
step beyond?
There’s a positive aspect to what
they’re doing. It’s better than in the
days when the only computer in the
house was a video game console.
When you have young people using
their home computers or iPhones for
communication and social networking, it’s good because it introduces
them to the broader power of computer science. Hopefully, many of these
young people will say, “I want to create
something like this.” But to empower
these kids, there needs to be a revolution in STEM education.
All available data tells us that our
K– 12 students are falling behind the
rest of the developed world. To address this, we’re exploring how to better teach STEM disciplines. We need to
revive the concept that science is about
discovery, and not the memorization
of facts. And computer science needs
to be a big part of this revolution—it
needs to be viewed as an essential
STEM discipline.
You clearly have a lot on your plate.
how do you serve so many needs with-
out shortchanging some?
I’m the wrong person to ask! As responsibilities increase, the hours of
the day don’t. If I’m writing a report, I
always want to have another month. If
I’m preparing for a class, I always want
to have another hour. I wish I had to
power to say “no,” but I don’t. I’m surrounded by people who can be counted
on to produce. I try to be one of those
people, too.
Dennis McCafferty is a Washington, D. C.-based
technology writer.