“How many of you use C++?”
Nearly 90 percent of the ICPC world finalists at the Manege raised their hands Monday morning.
“Don’t just raise your hands. Clap,” said the speaker who introduced C++ inventor and Abacus Award winner Bjarne Stroustrup.
At the morning IBM Tech Talk, Stroustrup reminded the ICPC world finalists that big innovations take time.
Doug Heintzman, IBM strategy director and ICPC sponsorship executive of the ICPC, presented C++ inventor Bjarne Stroustrup with the Abacus Award. (Photo by Nicole Hosh, ICPCNews)
“People tend to forget how long things take,” said Stroustrup before receiving the IBM award.
“Really important big things don’t happen over night. We really have to work on them.”
Designers need collaboration with other forward-thinking colleagues, places that nurture creativity and useful applications with which to work to persevere, he said.
Stroustrup mentioned the people and places that motivate him and encouraged the world finalists to find their own inspirations.
“I spend more of my time than anything else trying to figure out what the problem is,” he said. “Once you know that the problem is, the solution is usually reasonably obvious.“
Keynote speaker Jeff Jonas advised ICPC world finalists to build programs that find context in big data sets.
Jonas, an IBM fellow, has built more than 100 programs, including the program that helped capture the six MIT students who counted cards and subsequently took Las Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.
Jonas said there is an ever-growing global demand for technologists.
"All of you are going to have amazing jobs,” he said. “ I mean all of you. Super exciting. Just wait and see.”
There’s an opportunity to engineer responsibly by creating better data protection and privacy, he said.
Employees are not only looking for well-educated prospects, but people who ask “Why?“
"I encourage you to be really curious.”
Dioni L. Wise for ICPCNews