Accept no substitutes

Jones @ NCSU CS Graduation

40 years of NCSU CS
39.5 years after I went to Raleigh to take classes in something brand new called Computer Science at North Carolina State University, I’m headed back — at least for one day. I’m giving the graduation speech for the Winter grads on December 12. The Department is only one year older than my experience with it so while I’m not from the very first cohort to graduation after a full 4 years, I’m very early in the program.

I only get, thankfully the grads to be are probably saying, about 10 or 15 minutes to excite, inform, educate and amuse the grads.

What would you tell today’s Computer Science grads before they go out into the world?

1 Comment

  1. Jason Young

    That “code is law.” They will be writing rules and instructions (or picking the rules and instructions from others in IT or program manager roles) that collect, store, route, and display information. They will be asked to design and integrate software that will decide access, that will define roles, that willshape opinions. They have an incredible power to influence issues beyond the right algorithm, they have the power to make it easy or hard to protect the rights of content users as well as creators, to protect the privacy of the users of their software, to expose information. They are designing Frankenstein, and have the responsibility to think beyond the task to the impact the choices they make will have on those that use their tools.

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