Headline, September25, 2013

!!! ''' ? WHY THE HELL SHOULD YOU 

ALL STUDY COMPUTER SCIENCE? !!! '''

Answer : Because this soul burning science of  ''Computation''  has become a Basic, basic Tool  for almost every single field of endeavour!  Sighhhh...!! No fun left in this darned world?? Just study, and study and study and get fair grades!!

The students learnt many many decades ago that Computer science will hold a special position only among Engineering disciplines. And what we learnt was soon proven obsolete and even wrong. Because:

First, it then was a relatively new field characterized by underlying exponential performance improvements. Then, later and secondly, its subfields began to include modeling all other  ''engineered''  - ''natural''  and  ''human''  systems.  Over the past 70 plus odd years, computing practice and education have had to adapt to rapidly changing technology, applications, hardware, connectivity, laws, perceptions, assumptions. and the evolution of IT industry itself.

And like hell, the research-driven computing practice and education show no signs of slowing down. What lies ahead for computing professionals? I will do my very best to cover this topic as soon as I finish researching. You will get to read it on !WOW! For now, I go main stream:

Computation as a Basic element of your education and life, first received focus in the area of life sciences. Modeling and Analytics have become critical tools in biology, chemistry and medical sciences research. An important set of questions concerns:

How much computer science a biologist should know?!  And..................

How much biology a computer scientist should know?!

How much computer science, should the Marketing Gem, Samurai D, know?

This raises the question as to whether there should be some form of hybrid degree?! 

''Computing may be viewed as a   -''natural science''-   that is a basis to advocate teaching a view of biology in terms of computational processes. Thus, and therefore, this should logically bring us to the next step, and that is figuring out the Expanding Business value in an  Instrumented world.

Factually and Truthfully, a significant amount of the initial benefit of IT was for back-office automation. For example :  Payroll and Inventory with a major bent towards retailing. 

One argument that duly surfaced in no time is that much of the dot-com boom was a disruptive form of back-office automation coupled with a Web presence   -for example, Amazon. At the time some of the pundits talked about the death of brick-and-mortar business.

Applications that interact directly with the elements of the real world, such as  ''location aware mobile phone applications''  [ Technology Genius Rabo to note]   intelligent highway systems, and instrumented supply chains continue to emerge. for sure, rather 100%, this is now driving a major expansion in the requirements for   ''multidisciplinary education''  and the development of  !student teams! collaborating on:

Challenge-based projects that impact the real-world. Moreover, the social computing tools,  involving crowd-sourcing used to address Grand Challenge improvement projects are evolving in a blurrrrr.........!

Finally, never forget that ''communication skills'' matter. People increasingly work in global, distributed, open, multidisciplinary teams, and communication skills that use ''advanced IT'' are necessary.  The nerd with a pocket protector who works alone is an image and dustheap of the past.

Today computing professionals,  rather all disciplines, must work in teams and and understand the Big Picture of their projects. In many cases, like !WOW!   science and engineering graduates must collaborate globally across time zones, languages, and cultures with other business professionals on a seemingly  never-ending stream of innovative projects.

Clearly, this will require a solid foundation of communication skills and business fundamentals. So, without a good grounding in computer sciences, you will float in troubled waters. Buffeted all the time.

And over and above all this,  when livelihood beckons:   

So, -for this post,  -let me get to one core question that is likely to concern you all for now and the future:

''What then are the critical skill gaps that employers observe that the rapid changes in Information Technology induce or exacerbate?'' Think through on this when you work up your CVs.:

With respectful dedication to 3 Great Leaders in the Arena:

1. President Asif Ali Zardari, for the great qualities of Head & Heart that he brought out to serve his country.

2. Prime Minister Mian Muhammed Nawaz Sharif,  for picking up the seething gauntlets. Defining moments are on.

3. Pakistan's great and invincible son. Imran Khan. Where he to survive through and muddle forward. Be assured he will change the destiny of the province.

!WOW! assures all the leaders of its highest considerations and best wishes.

See ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

'' !!! Systems Thinking !!! '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless