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Computer Science University of Waterloo Who Is Don Cowan?

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Computer Science University of Waterloo Who Is Don Cowan? A Glimpse of the Past, One View of the Future Don Cowan Distinguished Professor Emeritus Director, Computer Systems Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science University of Waterloo Who is Don Cowan? > 52 years at Waterloo (1960 -) Founding Chair Computer Science (1966) • 0 to 35 professors, now 75 - https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/about/quick-facts Software engineering research • Making computers easier to use Helped found/operate some of the spinoffs • WATCOM (iAnywhere/SAP), LivePage (Oracle) Retired but still active in research • Direct Computer Systems Group • Interested in democratizing software development An Entrepreneurial U Coop education (1957 - ) Disdained by other universities – now copied Largest in the world Math contests (1962 - ) Devised by 4 high school teachers – 1962 Brought into the UW Expanded from Grade 7 to 13 (now 12) Now 250,000 student contestants every year UW identifies and attracts the best math students for Math, CS, Eng, Sci An Entrepreneurial U Computer Science Days (1964 – 1990) Brought 200 Ontario high school students to UW every Saturday for 8 months Taught students to program in 45 minutes Own language – TUTOR Waterloo Computer on Wheels (WATCOW) (1975 – 1980) First portable computer (PDP 11/45) Toured schools making programming accessible An Entrepreneurial U WATFOR, WATFIV, WATBOL … (1964 - Teach 1,000s of students how to program in FORTRAN (1960) and COBOL (unique) Commercial software inadequate & expensive • Minimum 30 seconds per program and no error indication • Maximum of 2880 per day/Each student took 5 tries • Piles of paper Created software (4 undergrads – 3 months) • 100 milliseconds 300 times faster • Showed exact location of errors Put UW on the map (1000s of copies) The past 1967/68 (45 years ago) The “Red Room” (in MC) Housed Canada’s largest computer (IBM 360/75 The past 1967/68 Backup for NASA space shots In several science fiction films Solid-state electronics (transistors) • Same function as today but bigger • Solid state electronics around about 7 years in 67 • Early machines - IBM 1620/7040/7090 • Transistor - ½ cm in diameter • Today CPUs + memory like a speck of dust (mote) • Before 1960 - vacuum tubes (light bulbs with a personality) How did we get it? Mathematics & Computer Building Student population – 1966 (5634) $5M building + furniture Included Computer (IBM 360/75) as furniture ($8M) – Canada’s largest computer Approved Other Ontario universities complained Funding withdrew UW stepped up and funded from operating budget The past - some comparisons 1967/68 Central Processor • 1967 - Everyone used Model 75 – clock speed 1 MHz - $3,000,000 • 2013 - Personal computer more powerful – Laptop clock speed > 2 GHz - $600 The past - some comparisons 1967/68 Random Access Memory • 8 megabyte - $8,000,000 - footprint – 3m x 1m • 8 gigabyte $8,000,000,000 • footprint 3,000 m2 (10 homes) • 2013 – 8 gigabyte $8 thumb-size The past - some comparisons 1967/68 Hard drives (IBM 2314) • 1967 – 8 drives X 28MB = 224MB $500,000 • Footprint – 4m x 1m • 120 GB - $250,000,000 – 2,000m2 (7 homes) • 2013 – 1 TB (1,000 GB) - < $100 10cm X 10cm We’ve come a long way Hardware (faster, smaller, cheaper) In the 80s predicting $1,000 computers • Now between $100 and $1,000 Premiums in cereal boxes (flash drives) Hardware as a commodity/appliance • The $50 tablet Ray Kurzweil “The Singularity is Near” predicts … • Exponential growth • Machine as extension of man or reverse But have we? Information is the lifeblood of every organization Yet building/evolving information systems is complex • just plain hard Only relatively simple specialized software a commodity • Word processors, spreadsheets, blogs, wikis, Facebook, Twitter, search engines … Software engineering is still a black art • Still depend on the programming paradigm • The science/engineering of software has not kept pace with hardware – software as integrated circuits The consequences Disenfranchising much of society SMEs, NGOs, social support organizations, even the health system Yet the Web is a powerful medium • likely to be the medium of choice for the foreseeable future Not really using IT to benefit society compared to what we could do • Access to information is key to operating society What might be done? Can we get rid of programmers? volunteerkw.ca From paper/FAX to Web (2005) Maintained by VAC People volunteering Increased by 500% A database of all old buildings in Canada Added by community 6,000 entries Mobile and desktop apps Mobile – tours/identify Desktop – maintain Add commentary (41 Allen St. E Waterloo) Tablet Where am I? What’s happening How do I get there? All information systems Components Reports (rows, columns of data, text, numbers) Multimedia (text, audio, pictures, video) Maps Databases Can you specify where components go in the application? Where do components get their data? Application Development Language (ADL) Looks simple - it is Have built several mobile apps ADL Graphic Interface Direction Enable “normal” people” To build information systems Not control systems such as air traffic, autopilots, automotive, real-time Questions, comments.
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