Bill Gates displays software’s future to University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Michigan students ~ Government urged to back science education, research

Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates talked with UW-Madison undergraduates about the promise of the technology industry when he stopped in their classroom during his 2005 College Tour. UW-Madison was one of five universities included in the tour, which is promoting greater youth involvement in technology careers.

Wearing an olive-green sweater, experiencing a minor glitch with the microphone and mumbling quietly to himself as he worked with a computer, a casual observer would have mistaken Bill Gates for any normal professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Of course, to a crowd of 200 computer science and engineering students overpopulating a room in Weeks Hall on Wednesday night, Gates was anything but unrecognizable. As founder and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp. and the richest man in the world, Gates is an icon in the profession and someone whose ideas can shape the computer market for years at a time.

Les Chappell

Full Story: http://wistechnology.com/article.php?id=2355

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Gates urges students to take up computer science

By Bree Fowler, Associated Press

Computer science graduates will be in greater demand than ever over the next 15 years, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates told an auditorium full of students at the University of Michigan on Wednesday.

Gates kicked off a three-day college tour aimed at getting young people interested in computer science and related fields. Gates was to speak later in the day at the University of Wisconsin.

"You’re going to have tons and tons of opportunities," Gates said. "If there’s a field to go into, this is it."

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-10-12-gates-computer-science_x.htm

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Government urged to back science education, research

The government was urged Wednesday to launch a broad program supporting science education, research and innovation in an effort to maintain the nation’s economic dominance.

Leadership in science and technology helped make the United States a world leader, but there are indications that could slip away, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences warned.

For example, 70,000 engineers were graduated in the United States last year, compared to 350,000 in India and 600,000 in China, the committee said in a new report. And in 2001, U.S. industry spent more on liability lawsuits than on research and development.

The report calls for four main efforts to shore up the nation’s position:

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2005-10-12-science-education_x.htm