Oct

Wall Street’s Collapse May Be Computer Science’s Gain

This article by Patrick Thibodeau and Todd R. Weiss in Computerworld, subtitled From IT to edge funds and back again, is quite interesting.

The collapse of Wall Street may help make computer science and IT careers attractive to students who abandoned these fields in droves after the POP of the last big bubble, the dot-com bust of 2001.

William Dally, chairman of the computer science department at Stanford University, said that for the last several years, he has watched some students interested in technology go into banking and finance because those fields could be more lucrative.

"Many thought they could make more money in hedge funds," Dally said. He said students are returning to computer science because they like the field and not because it can necessarily make them rich.

John Gallaugher, associate professor of information systems in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, said he’s already seeing a shift in student interest. (Read more)