The End of Computer Science

University of Florida Cuts Computer Science Department

Forbes Magazine contributor Steven Salzberg reports :

Wow, no one saw this coming.  The University of Florida announced this past week that it was dropping its computer science department, which will allow it to save about $1.7 million.  The school is eliminating all funding for teaching assistants in computer science, cutting the graduate and research programs entirely, and moving the tattered remnants into other departments.

Let’s get this straight: in the midst of a technology revolution, with a shortage of engineers and computer scientists, UF decides to cut computer science completely.

Meanwhile, the athletic budget for the current year is $99 million, an increase of more than $2 million from last year.  The increase alone would more than offset the savings supposedly gained by cutting computer science.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/04/22/university-of-florida-eliminates-computer-science-department-increases-athletic-budgets-hmm/ 

I am an engineer.  (I have multiple degrees from a great University, which has lots of distinguished alumni, including my late uncle Harry.  He graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in aeronautical engineering and retired about 25 years ago as the engineering head of the AC division of General Motors.  During his tenure as "chief" they had more patents than any other GM division.)

I believe in science and engineering.  Watching football can be fun, but football does essentially nothing for us in the global scheme of things.  Football does not prepare one to be a rocket scientist.  If it did, the State of Florida would probably not have allowed NASA to end the shuttle program.  A lot of jobs have been lost at the Kennedy Space Center in the past couple of years.  If there was correlation between football and rockets, then it would have been in the interest of the football programs in the state of Florida to keep the shuttles flying.  (Watch this blog next week for Space Shuttle launch pad photos.  I will be checking it out, but my understanding is that both shuttle launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center are essentially fully decommissioned now.)

Salzberg concludes:  Let the rest of the country worry about higher education! Florida can focus on orange groves and golf courses. Oh, and football.

BTW, Richway distributor Kevin P. who sells course maintenance products to golf courses in southern Florida, reports that quite a few golf courses in southern Florida are in financial trouble and some have actually closed, to be overrun by snakes, rodents, and other critters.  Apparently things are starting to improve though.  That’s good news for the golf industry and for Florida property owners.

Thanks to my friend Burt Gearhart for this news tip about the UofF.

Your reporter will be out of touch tomorrow, riding around in an airplane at 36,000 feet.  Thus this is being published one day earlier than normal. 

Sometimes “trying” isn’t enough

Today I heard someone in the hall outside my office telling a colleague “Well I tried” without much enthusiasm in his voice to indicate that he really had tried. 

I was struck by the fact that probably he had not really tried very hard and by the greater and more important fact that sometimes you have to succeed, not just try. 

Here is a case in point from April 13, 2012    [20120413] 

Newark Mayor Cory Booker Rescues Woman From Burning Building

Booker said there were several moments where he feared he wouldn't be able to get out, and that he almost decided to jump out the second story window.  But, merely “trying” was not option for Booker--- he had to succeed, because without a successful rescue by him, the woman would die. The incident occurred Thursday evening April 12, 2012.

Moments after the rescue, he tweeted:      “Thanks 2 all who are concerned. Just suffering smoke inhalation. We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok”

   Mayor Booker the morning after his "success."

For most of us, “trying” vs. “succeeding” is not a life or death matter, but many entrepreneurs can recall at least one time when succeeding was the only option to keep their business from dying. 

Beyond that, there are lots of people who have experienced times when succeeding was the only option.  Still others have only “tried”, but not succeeded and then wondered why their achievement of success is not at the level of those whose mindset is to succeed, not just try. 

Succeed --- don’t just try!