Retrospective on the 1990’s

Retrospective on the 1990’s Carey Williamson Department of Computer Science University of Calgary

My Background UofS 1981-85 UofS 1991-2001 Stanford 1985-1991

Highlights and Outlook • Computer Science: Through the 90’s and Beyond • The Global Scene • The National Scene • The Local Scene • People and Events • Faculty and Staff • Students • Department Activities • Future Outlook • The Discipline • The Department

Computer Science in the 1990’s • The “Era of the Internet” • Explosive growth in the deployment, use, commercialization, and value of the Internet • Internet host census: • 1.2 million in USA in January 1994 • 56.4 million in USA in January 2001 • Birth of the World Wide Web (circa 1993) • Internet traffic volumes grow 10-15% monthly • Moore’s Law continues to hold as well • The “Y2K Problem” looms

$$$ You are here 1990 2000 The Global Scene • Emergence of the “knowledge economy” • Predicted shortfalls of trained IT people • IT is a “media darling” (Nortel, Pixar, W95) • Explosion of the “.com” era

The National Scene • Significant government investment in the growth and expansion of IT • University expansion programs in CS/CE • Ontario, BC, Alberta, others • Computational ideas spread multi-disciplinarily • The “Software Engineering” battle rages • Federal CANARIE organization launches CA*net • ISI citation index study rates UofS CMPT #1 • Other notes: • U of S wins Vanier Cup 3 times (1990, 1996, 1998) • Toronto Blue Jays were actually good!

The Local Scene • Strong dept leadership throughout the decade • Bunt, McCalla, Cheston, Eager, Greer • Departmental name change • “Computational Science” to “Computer Science” • Software Engineering battle • Synopsis of issues from Gord McCalla in CACM • Administrative relocation of the department • From “Engineering” to “Arts and Science” • NSERC suspends “Summer NSERC” program, phases out Research Infrastructure program • Enrollments surge in CMPT; budgets very tight • Internship program option created

People and Events • Faculty • Staff • Students • The Good • The Bad • The Ugly • Departmental Activities

J. Greer J. Vassileva M. Horsch K. Schneider J-P. Tremblay C. Gutwin C. Williamson R. Deters C. McCrosky Faculty

G. Oster B. Millar (Protsko) C. Bernath M. Desjardins G. Koehn S. Doucette D. Bocking B. ven der Buhs Staff

Students (The Good, The Bad) Chris Tan Judy Escott Lori Kettel Martin Arlitt Byron Bashforth Debbie Fowler Remi Gurski Kevin Froese Brian ven der Buhs Milan Zoranovic Orland Hoeber Alpesh Patel Judi Thomson Omar Vega Norif Takaya Jason *

Students (The Ugly)

Departmental Activities and Events • “Warm Your Toes” party (the stuff of legends!) • A dept-wide winter-time social gathering • Entertainment, skits, faculty, staff, grad students • “Jeapordy” • “3D Dept Web Page” • Video: “The Blair Witch Process” • Video: “It Came From the Dung Lab!” • The “Tremblay Incident” (April 1, 199?) • Copies of video on sale at the door (contact Gina K.) • Significant birthday milestones • Bunt, McCalla, Cooke, Greer, Yang...

Future Outlook • The Discipline • Multi-disciplinary diffusion of computing • Pervasive, ubiquitous computing, wireless and more • The Department • The next generation • Continued growth and expansion (I hope!) • Revenue generation • Alumni • Government • Industry • Non-traditional revenue sources

1. Blatant Commercialism

2. John Cooke’s Pension Fund

Item #74131 Item #74139 Item #74127 3. Innovative Novelty Items on eBay

The End • Thank You! • Thanks for the memories!! • Slides are available from: www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~carey/talks/reunion.ppt CMPT ROCKS!

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Retrospective on the 1990’s