DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM SERIES

Dr Brian Kernighan, Princeton University


What Should an Educated Person Know about Computers?
Friday, April 23, 2010, 12:30pm-2:00pm, 70-1400 (auditorium)

   
ABSTRACT
All of us are affected by computing, in ways we may not even realize.
Some of the technology is highly visible, like personal computers and
the Internet; most is invisible, like the microprocessors in cars and
appliances, the programs that fly planes and control telephones, power
systems and medical equipment, or the myriad systems that quietly
collect personal data about us.

Even though most people will not be directly involved with programming
such systems, everyone is strongly affected by them, so an educated
person should have a good, if rather high level, understanding of how
computer hardware, software, and networks operate.  This includes
knowing what programs are and understanding why programming is hard.  It
means being informed about issues like usability, reliability, security,
privacy, and some of the inherent limitations of computers.  It should
include some idea of the history of computing and enough understanding
of the technologies to make reasonable guesses about the future.

This talk is based on my experience developing and teaching "Computers
in Our World," a Princeton course for students in the humanities and
social sciences.  The course is meant to describe how computing works --
hardware, software, networking, and systems built upon them -- for a
non-technical audience.  The intent, or perhaps just fond hope, is not
only to help students understand specific technologies, but also how to
reason about how systems work and how to be intelligently skeptical
about technology and technological claims.


BIOGRAPHY
Brian Kernighan received his BASc from the University of Toronto in 1964
and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton in 1969. He was in the
Computing Science Research center at Bell Labs until 2000, and is now in the
Computer Science Department at Princeton. He is the author of 8 books and
some technical papers, and holds 4 patents. He was elected to the National
Academy of Engineering in 2002. His research areas include programming
languages, tools and interfaces that make computers easier to use, often
for non-specialist users. He is also interested in technology education
for non-technical audiences.