Gates to students: Don’t try to be a billionaire, it’s overrated
Bill Gates made a rare appearance at the University of Washington this afternoon, talking about how qualitative and measurable advances in technology are coming together for major advances in the areas he cares most about these days, including education and efforts to help the poor people of the world.
But the appearance in the UW Computer Science & Engineering Department was most memorable for the question-and-answer session with students at the end — including one student who asked Gates for advice on how she could become rich like him.
Here are notes from the presentation and the Q&A session with students, not verbatim quotes but a shorthand summary to convey what was said as accurately as possible on the fly. You’ll find lots of little gems sprinkled throughout, particularly in the Q&A session.
Gates: I used to spend time on this campus stealing computer time. There was a time when if you were addicted to using computers it was a very tough addiction to deal with. I never did get a degree here or anywhere else, but fortunately for me, my addiction to computers became easier to satisfy because of the invention of the microprocessor.
Going to talk and then answer questions. As I say things that are wrong or stimulating please think up questions to go with those.
Lots of big quantitative changes. Most dramatic change of all is cost of storage. Gone from $700/MB to .002 cents/MB in 2011. Now it’s so cheap it’s actually almost absurd. He had to adjust his thinking from old paradigm, example of where younger people without old ideas can have advantage.
Eight big qualitative improvements: Natural user interface, Cloud Computing, Modeling, Machine Learning, Pervasive Computing, Big Data, Smartphones, Robotics.
A lot of the activities I’m involved with now really have modeling at the center. Full time at the foundation, still go to Microsoft, but my primary thing is thinking about the two key focuses of the foundation, helping poor people and helping the education system.
People shouldn’t forget about robotics, still lots of promise there.
Significant breakthroughs will come from this intersection of qualitative and quantitative changes.
Demo of KinectFusion. Rendering a scene in real time.
A lot of great examples of modeling at the UW. Not pandering. David Baker’s Foldit protein folding game. Zoran Popovic Refraction game, finding the best pathways for learning algebra. It’s computer science being applied in an unexpected way.
Intersection of qualitative and quantitative improvements can help the poorest people on earth. Malaria number one killer of children in Africa. Epidemiological modeling. Allows us to better target intervention dollars. Smallpox is only human disease that has been eradicated. Polio down to a few thousand cases a year. That’s the thing he spends most time on as an individual project. Hoping to make it second human disease to become eradicated in matter of years.
Computer modeling of disease. Intellectual Ventures Model, agent-based Monte Carlo model. World effort to get rid of malaria will be driven by modeling. Computer science is key to eradicating disease — simulating what will happen with bednets and vaccines. More than you’d ever thought you’d learn about malaria. Most of the cities in Africa are inland because of the desire to escape malaria.
It makes it so much more rational to make decisions when you’re able to model the effects.
Choose the problem you want to solve: Healthcare informatics, Bioscience Research, Disease Modeling, Immersive Learning, Climate modeling, materials development, drought-resistant crops.
Opportunities that excite me for computer science to have an impact: energy, education, healthcare, population growth, sanitation/water. I think technology is the big promise there. Khan Academy. There’s many people doing work like that but it’s really an exemplar of the notion of using online lectures, testing your own knowledge. (Note: Reference to Khan Academy corrected.)
Although my full-time work is foundation work, I find myself coming back to people like you and saying, “Help me, give me some computer science to solve these problems, and I’m optimistic that you’ll deliver.”
Source: http://www.geekwire.com/2011/gates-tells-uw-students-billionaire-overrated
Gotta love Gates.
Bill Gates made a rare appearance at the University of Washington this afternoon, talking about how qualitative and measurable advances in technology are coming together for major advances in the areas he cares most about these days, including education and efforts to help the poor people of the world.
But the appearance in the UW Computer Science & Engineering Department was most memorable for the question-and-answer session with students at the end — including one student who asked Gates for advice on how she could become rich like him.
Here are notes from the presentation and the Q&A session with students, not verbatim quotes but a shorthand summary to convey what was said as accurately as possible on the fly. You’ll find lots of little gems sprinkled throughout, particularly in the Q&A session.
Gates: I used to spend time on this campus stealing computer time. There was a time when if you were addicted to using computers it was a very tough addiction to deal with. I never did get a degree here or anywhere else, but fortunately for me, my addiction to computers became easier to satisfy because of the invention of the microprocessor.
Going to talk and then answer questions. As I say things that are wrong or stimulating please think up questions to go with those.
Lots of big quantitative changes. Most dramatic change of all is cost of storage. Gone from $700/MB to .002 cents/MB in 2011. Now it’s so cheap it’s actually almost absurd. He had to adjust his thinking from old paradigm, example of where younger people without old ideas can have advantage.
Eight big qualitative improvements: Natural user interface, Cloud Computing, Modeling, Machine Learning, Pervasive Computing, Big Data, Smartphones, Robotics.
A lot of the activities I’m involved with now really have modeling at the center. Full time at the foundation, still go to Microsoft, but my primary thing is thinking about the two key focuses of the foundation, helping poor people and helping the education system.
People shouldn’t forget about robotics, still lots of promise there.
Significant breakthroughs will come from this intersection of qualitative and quantitative changes.
Demo of KinectFusion. Rendering a scene in real time.
A lot of great examples of modeling at the UW. Not pandering. David Baker’s Foldit protein folding game. Zoran Popovic Refraction game, finding the best pathways for learning algebra. It’s computer science being applied in an unexpected way.
Intersection of qualitative and quantitative improvements can help the poorest people on earth. Malaria number one killer of children in Africa. Epidemiological modeling. Allows us to better target intervention dollars. Smallpox is only human disease that has been eradicated. Polio down to a few thousand cases a year. That’s the thing he spends most time on as an individual project. Hoping to make it second human disease to become eradicated in matter of years.
Computer modeling of disease. Intellectual Ventures Model, agent-based Monte Carlo model. World effort to get rid of malaria will be driven by modeling. Computer science is key to eradicating disease — simulating what will happen with bednets and vaccines. More than you’d ever thought you’d learn about malaria. Most of the cities in Africa are inland because of the desire to escape malaria.
It makes it so much more rational to make decisions when you’re able to model the effects.
Choose the problem you want to solve: Healthcare informatics, Bioscience Research, Disease Modeling, Immersive Learning, Climate modeling, materials development, drought-resistant crops.
Opportunities that excite me for computer science to have an impact: energy, education, healthcare, population growth, sanitation/water. I think technology is the big promise there. Khan Academy. There’s many people doing work like that but it’s really an exemplar of the notion of using online lectures, testing your own knowledge. (Note: Reference to Khan Academy corrected.)
Although my full-time work is foundation work, I find myself coming back to people like you and saying, “Help me, give me some computer science to solve these problems, and I’m optimistic that you’ll deliver.”
Source: http://www.geekwire.com/2011/gates-tells-uw-students-billionaire-overrated
Gotta love Gates.
