http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&e=7&u=/ap/20050719/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_research

REDMOND, Wash. - Speaking to hundreds of university professors, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says he's baffled more students don't go into computer science.

Gates said Monday that even if young people don't know that salaries and job openings in computer science are on the rise, they're hooked on so much technology — cell phones, digital music players, instant messaging, Internet browsing — that it's puzzling why more don't want to grow up to be programmers.

"It's such a paradox," Gates said. "If you say to a kid, 'Yeah, what are the 10 coolest products you use that your parents are clueless about, that you're good at using,' I don't think they're going to say, 'Oh, you know, it's this new breakfast cereal. And I want to go work in agriculture and invent new cereals or something.' ... I think 10 out of 10 would be things that are software-driven."

Gates made his remarks on the first day of the annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, which drew nearly 400 computer science professors from 175 schools in 20 countries to the software maker's campus.

Sharing the stage with Gates, Maria Klawe, Princeton University's dean of engineering and applied science, said most students she talks to fear that computer science would doom them to isolating workdays fraught with boredom — nothing but writing reams of code.

Gates said computer scientists need to do a better job of dispelling that myth and conveying that it's an exciting field.

"How many fields can you get right out of college and define substantial aspects of a product that's going to go out and over 100 million people are going to use it?" Gates said. "We promise people when they come here to do programming ... they're going to have that opportunity, and yet we can't hire as many people as we'd like."

Citing statistics from UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, Klawe said students' interest in computer science fell more than 60 percent from 2000 to 2004, even though salaries have increased and more jobs have opened up.

Klawe opened an hourlong question-and-answer with Gates by asking him what he thought could be done to stem a decline in federal funding for computer science research and graduate education.

In past three years, she noted, the Defense Department's research agency — a major source of money for computer science academics — has cut its funding for information technology research at universities almost in half.

The National Science Foundation is awarding a smaller percentage of grants for computer science than for other fields, she said.

Gates said Microsoft and other high-tech companies need to keep telling the government it's making a big mistake — one that could forestall stunning advancements in medicine, environmental science and other fields.

He also said companies can help by boosting their own investments in research and development.

"The best investment we've ever made is having our Microsoft Research groups," Gates said.

Modeled after academic research facilities, Microsoft Research focuses on work that is relevant to Microsoft's product lineup, such as security or search technology.

Products including the TabletPC have come out of the research arm, which has labs in Redmond; San Francisco; California's Silicon Valley; Cambridge, England; Beijing and Bangalore, India.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

They would rather play their playstation and get fat.....after all...we owe them a living after highschool.

The apathy part is clear...but you would think they would get excited about the technology they base their life on..

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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I don't care about eliminating apathy on CS.

Apparently they have been taught about "outsourcing". A purely market-driven economy drives many good jobs overseas, and they don't feel like moving to Karachi.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
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1999 Toyota Tacoma

He is addressing computer scientists. There is a huge difference between the programmers he is referring to and "programmers" i.e. the low skill, slow pace programmers i.e. the people that think they are programmers because they "know" HTML and VB (and have no desire to learn anything else). I am dissing the limited, focused on one technology, get it done now whether it's software or not, type job rather than those particular technologies. He is talking about the people that create new technologies instead of using/re-writing old ones. The jobs that are being outsourced to India are low skill jobs. Graduate with a C from any good university and you will start out at $55K+ (or $70K-$90K if you are in a larger city). I am a 3rd year and this summer I am making that. Get a graduate degree and you are starting out at $120K (or several hundred K if you are in a large city).

Um..I beg to differ..........these guys are outsourcing the heavy duty programmers........A lot of my new customers the last 3 years are software houses owned and staffed by Indians....with an office and a few people here but all work done overseas....I know of 12 places in the DC area that do just that...

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Perhaps the apathy comes from Microsoft's stiffling of creativity and independent research. Think about when the biggest leaps in design and invention took place and you might see that it was before Microsoft steamrolled the personal computer industry.

How old are you...and do you remember the pre-windows95 era? I do and I prefer the Microsoft monopoly to those days.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

BHD, I was working in Santa Clara when people were breadboarding Zilog and National Semiconductor circuits at home, so yes I was there during the pre-MS-DOS days. I've done my share of TRS-DOS, CP/M, AppleDos, MS-DOS, Appletalk, Netware, WinWkgrp, NT, Wordstar hacks, Wordperfect macros, dBaseII scripts, Hypercard stacks and other miscellaneous end user products, along with many manhours with a bunch of Borland's languages and AT&T/Novell's flavor of Unix.

I think the apathy comes from the changes in the job market in the early 2000's. In the late 90's computer science was the bomb as there was massive demand for programmers and salaries were higher than in most other fields. That was also the time I was working towards my Bachelor's degree and I was one of many who switched to computer science from another major. Then came the dot com crash and the economy fell into a recession. Many programmers got laid off and couldn't find another job and at the same time computer science was no longer the "hot new field" that it used to be in the 90's. Now there aren't enough qualified programmers and the job is in high demand again, but the field just doesn't have the hot exciting feeling about it anymore. I still like it though and I wouldn't consider switching to something else.

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Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

Bonehead I think some of the younger generation is planning things like my 18 year old nephew. He's going to retire now while he can enjoy retirement. Then when he's 62 or 65 he will go to work. Rotten little bum! I wonder what he plans on doing when our generation is too old and feeble to support him.

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1983 300-D turbo
1985 300-D turbo
1959 Harley Panhead chopper
1929 Ford coupe restored
I hang out with Boneheaddoctor at Schuman Automotive OBK#5
All liberals are mattoids but not all mattoids are liberal.

If computers are not so hot, how about bio-tech? What say Bot?
Mark

He'll wise up about the time he gets hungry.........

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

One word:

India

- Patrick

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1982 240D. 198k, Marine Blue/Blue, 4 Speed, Crank Windows, No Sunroof, No Rust, No Oil Leaks
2001 TDI. 197k, Lagoon Blue/Black, 5 speed, Chip, G60/VR6