Gates Worried Over Decline in U.S. Computer Scientists"
IDG News Service (07/18/05); Montalbano, Elizabeth

A shortage of qualified U.S. computer science engineers is indicative of dwindling interest in the field among college students, said Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit on July 18. He is concerned about the decline in the number of students entering computer science, and said Microsoft and other tech giants have a responsibility to dispel IT's negative image and boost its appeal to students. Gates said Microsoft must emphasize the positive aspects of working in different areas of technology projects in order to counter the perception of computer science as a field characterized by social isolation and mind-numbing programming. "The greatest missing skill is somebody who's good at understanding engineering and bridges that to working with customers and marketing," he said. "I'd love to have people come to these jobs wanting to exercise people management, people dynamics as well as basic engineering skills." Gates' comments came about during a question-and-answer session with Princeton University computer science professor and former ACM President Maria Klawe, who cited findings from UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute estimating that computer science suffered a more than 60 percent drop in popularity as a major for incoming college students between 2000 and 2004. Her feeling was that students-- women in particular--view computer science as a less glamorous field to work in. Gates also used the summit to pledge his support for continued government investment in computer science, noting that technology plays a critical role in addressing social issues such as education and global health care.

"Around the world, unfilled IT jobs already number in the hundreds of thousands, and demand is expected to increase more than 100 percent before the end of this decade.  At this rate there simply won't be enough skilled people to keep the systems running."   Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., former CEO of IBM (2002). (From Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround.)

"It's [declining student interest in CS] is a major concern for us because we're a company that runs on people.  Our hiring has continued to go up, but unfortunately what we're seeing right now is a decline in the potential supply."  Richard F. Rashid, Senior Vice President for Microsoft Research.  Quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, May 27, 2005, p. A31-2.  Mr. Rashid also said he has more jobs for computer science graduates than it can fill.