IT - the Master Key for Success

school will soon be over

next: where to go?

Choice

but what to study?

something interesting

something that pays well

something useful for society

good news 1:you will change at least 5 times what you do during your career

no decision is ultimate!

good news 2:

now it is much easier to mix and match courses and come out with

combined degrees

so you have a chance to find a career matching all your interests

quick rewind: how it was once…

place: Sofia, Bulgaria

year: 1981

“real socialism”

Julita Vassileva, 18

liked: writing, paintingdreamed of: traveling

good at: generally everything…

constraints

communism writing, art, traveling

arts and humanities

engineeringTU Sofia

Required a 30-min tram ride from home

home

TU

sciences

• Biology:

• Chemistry: Never liked the smell

• Physics: okay

• Math: not so interesting, but powerful…– The laws of Nature are written in the language of mathematics ... (Galileo)

Ex-boyfriend applied there

so I chose: Math!

brief history of studenthood• 1981- fresh”woman” in math – horrible!

– 6 hours of math per day! So many different kinds of math!– learned 18 hours a day– surrounded by partying geniuses – exams: @#$% -- but actually, not so bad.

• 1982- 2nd year in math– favorite subject: Analysis… Geometry nice as well– Computing: just boring… – Many boys around – good. – exams – going well – apart from bloody numeric methods!

• 1983 – 3rd year in math– excellent marks overall– the geniuses disappeared – research career in Functional Analysis?

• 1984 – 4th year: specialization in cybernetics and system control – “Computing is like knitting”– gives a sense of power– see your creation work in reality – nice

• 1985/86- diploma work (M.Sc.): intelligent tutoring system for Ohm’s law• 1985 - got married!

after graduation: quickly back to school

• 1986: assistant prof. at the Chemical Technology Inst. – too much teaching – 15 hrs/week, 15 weeks/term…– doing this all my life?– what else? – compete to enter a PhD program.

• 1987: PhD program at the Institute of Math (CS), Bulg. Academy of Sciences– practical Intelligent tutoring systems for any domain– A baby (1988)! – joy and horror! – found a nanny (1989)! That was an achievement! – read, read, think, write, think, write, program, play, think, think, read, play, play, program, think, play, think, write, read, think, write, play … – first paper accepted at an international conference in Sofia

• 1989: Suddenly the Wall collapsed!– Second paper accepted at a conference in Germany – I am the first one in my family go to the West on business!– And I got the PhD (1991)!– The world was ready for my arrival!

the big journey• 1992-1997: Munich, Germany

– research associate at Inst. Technische Informatik– work, work work– the 2-body problem– distance– the horrors of the German kindergarten for a 4 yrs. old not speaking

German)

– Europe is too small, crowded

1997-present: Saskatoon, Canada - research associate (2 years) - University Faculty Award (1999) – faculty at UofS

- assistant prof 1999-2001 - associate prof 2001-june 2007 - full prof Juy 2007 -

Writing and publishing over 100 papers Conferences and sabbaticals – traveling around the world (some of my dreams came true)

my travels

Amsterdam

Porto Auckland, NZ Christchurch,NZ

Hawaii

Santiago, Chile BerlinMadrid, Spain

Maceio, Brazil

but this is history…

what is the situation Now and Here?

Computing and Financial Management

Mathematics and Computer ScienceActuarial ScienceBioinformaticsBusiness Administration (WLU) and Mathematics (Waterloo) Double DegreeCombinatorics and OptimizationComputational MathematicsComputer Science

MathematicsMathematics Teaching OptionMathematics/Business AdministrationMathematics/Chartered AccountancyOperations ResearchPure MathematicsStatisticsMathematical Physics

Biotechnology/Chartered AccountancyBiotechnology/EconomicsEnvironment and BusinessEnvironment and Resource Studies

Biology relatedBiochemistryBioinformaticsBiochemistry and biotechnologyBiotechnologyBiologyBiology and biotechnologyBiomolecular structureMicrobiology and biotechnologySociology of Biotechnology

Example Interdisciplinary Programs

Biology

Chemistry

Engineering

Computer Science

Biochemistry Biotechnology

Business/Commerce

Sociology

BioinformaticsMathematics

Mathematics & MBANanotech

Physics

EnvironmentStudies

Agriculture

Study: programs / disciplines

Internationaldevelopment

Biology

Chemistry

EngineeringBiochemistry Biotechnology

Business/Commerce

Sociology

BioinformaticsMathematics

Mathematics & MBANanotech

Physics

EnvironmentStudies

Agriculture

Internationaldevelopment

Computer Science

Application of knowledge

programming

– though it is deemed necessary to proceed to learn towards really interesting things

what is NOT computer science?

so what IS computer science? Informatics

– the science of information:

patterns, structures, processes

Intelligence

- understanding and constructing intelligent behaviours

Business Computing

Dr. Maya Daneva

Telus

Business Process Modelling

• Main aims of process models:• descriptive

– traces what actually happens during a process – takes the point of view of an external observer who looks at the way a process

has been performed and determines the improvements that have to be made to make it perform more effectively or efficiently

• prescriptive – defines desired processes and how they should/could/might be performed – lays down rules, guidelines, and behavior patterns which, if followed, would lead

to the desired process performance. They range from strict enforcement to flexible guidance.

• explanatory – provides explanations about the rationale of processes – explores and evaluates several possible courses of action based on rational

arguments – establishes an explicit link between processes and the requirements that they are

to fulfill

E.g. SAP – the largest German Software Company allows integrated:

Budget monitoring: Gives managers seamless access to the financial data they need to make better decisions.

Time management: Enables employees to record work and billable hours using their calendar, and automatically synchronizes and updates appointments with the application for enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Leave management: Enables employees to submit personal leave requests and handle management approvals processes.

Organization management: Allows employees and managers to access organization information and HR-related tasks.

BioComputing

Professor Lila Kari

Computer Science,

University of Western Ontario

Computational Biology = tries to solve biological problems with computational modelling methods and tools . Examples include simulation programs applied to looking at protein-protein interactions, protein folding, drug binding site elucidation, etc.

Bioinformatics = the application of data management, data mining, data modeling and algorithmic techniques to biological databases, such as genome databases and related sequencing information. Examples include using computer models to predict method gene function and data mining for inferring and determining sequence homology information. Biomolecular Computation = exploit biological macromolecules to implement relatively standard methods of computation. Examples are DNA computing, storage media using bacteria rhodopsin and biologically altered cells that do rudimentary operations within the paradigm of traditional computation.

Biological Computation = how biology computes from the sub-cellular level to the systems and population level.

Social Computing

My name is danah boyd and i'm a PhD student in SIMS at Berkeley and a social media researcher at Yahoo! Research Berkeley. Buzzwords in my world include: identity, context, social networks, youth culture, social software, performance, Friendster, MySpace.

Barry Wellman is a Professor at the University of Toronto. He studies networks: community, communication, computer, and social. His research examines virtual community, the virtual workplace, social support, community, kinship, friendship, and social network theory and methods.

Paul Resnick, University of Michigan: We are drawing on theories and data from social psychology and public goods economics to drive design decisions about on-line communities with the goal of increasing participants' contributions to the communal good.

Affective ComputingRosalind Picard

MIT Media Lab

Affective Computing is computing that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotions

“Our approach, grounded in findings from cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, medicine, psychophysiology, sociology, and ethics, is to develop engineering tools for measuring, modeling, reasoning about, and responding to affect. Thus, we develop new sensors, algorithms, systems, and theories that enable new forms of machine intelligence as well as new forms of human understanding.”

Artificial Intelligence

Author of the program Chinook, the World Man-Machine Checkers Champion. Chinook has been recognized by the Guiness Book of World Records as the first computer to win a human world championship in any game. We have done a lot of work on (nearly optimally) solving Sokoban problems. We think we have the strongest poker program (Texas Hold'em). An awesome Lines of Action program. One of the best Hex programs.

Game computing

but I can also study biology, psychology or sociology

and then do all the computational stuff

yes, but it will be harder

think of all the Math that you will have forgotten in the meantime

learn the harder stuff when you are younger and smarter!

“studying CS is hard”

well, yes, but just the first 2 years!

and every study at the University is hard in the 1st year!

This is Just a Temporary Appearance

“need a lot of patience to succeed”

yes, patience is needed to debug programs.

a small attitude test

• Imagine you are at a math exam

• You’re simplifying an equation and you get stuck at the following:

0*x = 2

• Your classmates are whispering around you: “The right answer is 12”…

• What do you do?

options

Check carefully to find your error – spend the remainder of the exam on this, leaving the other problems

Check briefly and go to the next problem, then check again if there is time left

Think “they must be wrong”, even though you can’t really get any answer from where you are now

Write an explanation note to the examiner, that you have worked really hard and even though it seems to be wrong it isn’t really your fault

key

X Check carefully to find your error – spend the remainder of the exam on this, leaving the other problems

Check briefly and go to the next problem, then check again if there is time left

Think “they must be wrong”, even though you can’t really get any answer from where you are now

Write an explanation note to the examiner, that you have worked really hard and even though it seems to be wrong it isn’t really your fault

It is not my fault!

It is this stupid compiler!!!

My program is perfect!

of course, it IS your fault!

but sometimes it helps to kick this stupid computer (gently ;-)

yes, patience is needed to debug programs.

and a dose of healthy self-confidence goes a long way!

in Year 3, you will see light in the tunnel

it all suddenly makes sense together.

now you CAN use it to solve real problems.

and the problems are everywhere, waiting for you!

so are the jobsWhich jobs are most offered?NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) asked employers which jobs they have offered the most so far this year (2005) and what their starting salaries were. The results: •Accounting (private): $44,564 •Management trainee: $35,811 •Teaching: $29,733 •Consulting: $49,781 •Sales: $37,130 •Accounting (public): $41,039 •Financial/Treasury analysis: $45,596 •Software design/development: $53,729 •Design/construction engineering: $47,058 •Registered nurse: $38,775All of the salaries quoted are national (US) averages. The NACE survey looked at starting pay in 70 disciplines at the bachelor's degree level.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/15/pf/college/starting_salaries/index.htm

and the $$$sEngineering Majors $49,636

Computer Sciences Majors

$49,110

Business Majors $41,233

Health Sciences Majors

$39,499

Sciences Majors $38,121

Home Economics Majors

$33,565

Agriculture & Natural Resources Majors

$32,403

Communications Majors

$31,900

Humanities & Social Sciences Majors

$31,212

Education Majors $30,646

Engineering breakdown:Chemical engineering $53,813 Computer engineering $52,464Electrical engineering $51,888 Civil engineering $43,679Mechanical engineering $50,236

Arts and Humanities:Psychology and sociology $29,861 History: $31,727 English: $32,237

Starting salaries for Graduating class2005:

Epilogue: 10 reasons NOT to…

…choose an easy path

if it seems easy:

many people will choose this paththere will be too many people just like you

what would be YOUR market value?getting a job would be like winning

personal satisfaction?

but how can you get satisfaction from something that is hard?

- if you work hard, you will succeed. - the feeling of success after challenge brings a

great satisfaction.

…choose something that you like!

- no, you will grow to like what you choose, when you become good in it.

- the reward is well worth the effort.

why do athletes subject themselves to gruesome training?

to get the satisfaction of personal achievementto win

to get recognitionto get $$$

your attitude determines the altitude that you will reach.