IT experts urged to focus on software development

THOUGH confined within cubicles and rooms, computer science students and information technology (IT) professionals can help solve global problems like climate change, epidemics and financial crisis through software development.

So said Prof. Srini Devadas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) science teacher, during a presentation dubbed “Programming The Future” at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino last Monday.

The activity sponsored by information communication firm Accenture Philippines as part of their “Accenture Technology Month” celebration sought to encourage IT professionals and computer students to develop and expand software technology.

Devadas said developing software and the computer tools to help government agencies solve existing world problems remains a daunting challenge for the IT industry.

“We have seven billion people on earth today and there will be nine billion by 2050. we are faced with many different issues. How will humanity deal with these problems and make progress?” Devadas said.

Devadas said it is the academe’s role to foster this creativity among students in building tools that would help make programming universally accessible.

He said in the near future, programming can be done using the English language.

“There could be a billion programmers in 2050 if these programmers can program in languages that are much closer to natural language than current syntax-heavy scientific or object-oriented languages,” the MIT professor said.

Nowadays Devadas said people are already generating much data that current infrastructure cannot process.

However, he believes that technology will evolve to a level in which data can be immediately analyzed and converted as specific usable information.

One example Devadas cited is the VizWiz software that lets blind people ask visual questions to the crowd by simply taking a picture of the object and ask a questions about it to immediately get an answer.

Devadas will also deliver his presentation to students and IT professionals in Manila on July 27 under the partnership between Accenture and MIT.

David Soriano, Accenture senior executive lead for technology in Cebu, Devadas’s presentation will help arouse more interest among students and IT professionals in developing their programming skills.

Their Accenture Technology Academy (ATA) which partners with MIT, provides certifications to their employees.

Soriano said the crucial role of programming and developing software should be raised in the country’s IT sector.