Amen
It's been a long time coming. I got an MS degree in Computer Science back in the early 70s because the Engineering School wouldn't accept my Mathematics BA as good enough, requiring me to start over in their 5-year undergraduate program. BUT, at UofI this new-fangled thing called Computer Science had just been formalized and it was part of the Math Department so my BA was just fine with them. I took a whole series of Electrical Engineering courses as elective and after graduation IBM hired me as a baby Electrical Engineer where I worked primarily in their chip-making support areas in the old Office Products Division, mostly PROGRAMMING. I was a Software Engineer before there was such a title.
Fast forward to now. I have a grandson, straight A student in HS, then accepted at UT Engineering School in Texas, making straight As during the pandemic times as a Freshman, doing remote learning, and then leaving the school to enroll in a Medical School program. I reached out to a good friend, an emeritus-positioned Engineering faculty and ex Dean, to contact my grandson and "pump him up" about the program to encourage him to stay in the program. He contacted the current Dean to do that, who said he would, but it never happened. I guess the faculty was too busy? Silence. I really expected that when my grandson didn't return to the program that someone would contact him. I mean he was a straight A student in the Freshman Engineering program that didn't come back. You would think one of his professors, or the school's Dean would make some kind of effort. But, no.
So now he is in Dublin going to Medical School. Guess what? He's making High Honors. While it is a good thing for him professionally, and he will have a lucrative career, our research and technology world has currently lost a really bright and maybe even potential future luminary. He actually liked math and physics, he did all the work willingly and with enthusiasm, and was/is just a good guy. We need more of him in technology!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
