Thursday, August 25, 2005

Technology: A Techie, Absolutely, and More

An article from today's NY Times about how techies are becoming "renaissance geeks".

On campuses today, the newest technologists have to become renaissance geeks. They have to understand computing, but they also typically need deep knowledge of some other field, from biology to business, Wall Street to Hollywood. And they tend to focus less on the tools of technology than on how technology is used in the search for scientific breakthroughs, the development of new products and services, or the way work is done.
...
At the same time, the march of computing is rippling across all academic disciplines. Even as computer science students are being encouraged to take more courses outside their major, students in other disciplines are finding more often that they need to use, design and sometimes write computer programs.
Several universities, for example, are developing multidisciplinary courses in "services science." The idea is to combine research in the social sciences, management, engineering and computing to pursue insights, innovations and increased productivity in the huge services sector of the economy, which now employs more than 80 percent of American workers. The University of California, Berkeley will offer a services science graduate course in the coming academic year.