Computer science in 1974, you sat in McBryde a lot. There was a room that was the key punch room. And you waited in line to be able to type in your program. And then you waited in line and read it in the card reader than you waited around for three hours until print out came back. Dr. George Gorsline he was the first department head. And really he's the one that started the process of growing the department. The first course that you took in computer science was 2071, introduction to programming when Dr. Gorsline, he's our guy. The mainframe was the main computer that we had that was run by the computing center, separate entity from the department. And at that time the computing center was located in the back of Burruss Hall. The second transition then was to these terminal rooms that you had hardware terminals. And then the PCs came out in the early eighties. Mid-nineties, and into the mid-2000 is when wireless networks started to pop up. That's how the kind of technology evolved in the last 40 years. And I was lucky that I got to play a part in all of it. There have been so many transformations and and evolutions in the department over the years. It's hard to name just a few, obviously, in computer science we kind of follow and is as much as possible lead the technical transitions and evolutions that happen in our field. But we've also seen a lot of changes in the students. And because computer science used to be more and more narrowly focused, we spent a lot of time thinking about the computer. We spend a lot more time now thinking about the world. So while I was a freshman, I took my first computer science class. I didn't really know much about it. I just wanted to experiment with other engineering discipline. And the class was CS 2114, software design and data structure with Professor Margaret Ellis. So what I learned from that class is computer science is really a way to express your creativity through coding and designing and programming. And I think that's so fascinating. Because I realize all you need to do is if you have a computer, if you have a laptop, if you have some things that you can code with, you could create things from nothing, you can do things that no one has done before. And I find that so amazing. And the state is investing in a so-called tech talent pipeline at Virginia Tech and other universities in the state. That gives us the resources to graduate a lot more students. But also to pursue some really innovative and high-impact research and a featured part of that investment, that tech talent pipeline. investment, is the so-called Innovation Campus in Alexandria that most folks have heard about. We're very excited about that. We're, we're very busy right now planning the physical buildings that will be part of the Innovation Campus, but also the programming and the degrees. That's going to give us a wonderful front porch on Washington DC, which we've had for many years, but it's only going to grow with this, with this new opportunity. So we're really excited about that. As a senior in computer science, I am, super proud to tell others that I'm from Virginia Tech and they're like, wow, Virginia Tech they have a really good CS program. So I'm, I'm proud to be part of computer science and I hope one day I can achieve enough for the CS department to be proud of me. My greatest takeaway from computer science, a wonderful life, a wonderful career, a beautiful wife. These are the things that computer science helped me obtain by teaching me how to solve problems. In my era, it was learn the technology and get the tools and start applying it to the real-world. Ten years from now, 20 years from now, that technology's there. It's how do we, how do we make life better for all of us?
