Furthermore, as we continue to embrace the Internet-of-Things, unprecedented access to massive amounts of data, and the rise of automation and robotics, we are also barreling towards a future where there is smart everything -- buildings, infrastructure, transportation, cities, healthcare, energy, and environment. These smart systems will rely on cyber technologies, both hardware and software, that are deeply embedded in and interacting with physical components sensing AND changing the state of the real world. So, I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that the computer scientists we are training today will become the engineers of our daily lives in the not too distant future.

As technology plays a larger role in our world, growth in IT jobs has outstripped overall job growth. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates 1.1 million computing-related job openings in the U.S. by 2024, but more than two-thirds of these jobs could go unfilled due to the insufficient pool of college graduates with computing related degrees. And we are not just talking about jobs to scrap by on; computing jobs are launching high-paying careers. Since 2003, real wages for U.S. occupations have decreased by 0.8 percent to an average of $41,132, while real wages grew by 10 percent for database administrators, by 3 percent for computer programmers, and by 6 percent for software engineers.

It’s not even just the technology companies. Virtually every industry and organization has become dependent on technology for its business. Two-thirds of computer jobs are in non-technology industries, such as healthcare, banking, or manufacturing. It should come as no surprise then that today’s undergraduate college students – and their parents – have quickly caught on to this reality. If you want to guarantee a quality job after graduation, you ought to have computer science expertise.

By now, you have all seen the staggering data on undergraduate CS enrollment from the Computing Research Association (CRA) and others. In fact, in just a few minutes, you’ll be hearing a summary of CRA’s recent report, entitled “Generation CS,” which details this astronomical rise in CS enrollment. That paper cites a recent survey in which over 60% of the participating academic units report that their enrollment of CS majors have more than doubled since 2009. And in order to fully understand the demand that exists, consider that we are also seeing record increases in the number of non-majors at all levels: intro-level, mid-level, and upper-level.

To be sure, computer science has always been subject to cyclical growth and decline. The supply of computer science graduates has had two brief spikes— first in the mid-1980s and then again in the early to mid-2000s—corresponding with the advent of the personal computer and the dot-com boom, respectively. We are certainly in another dramatic upward swing right now, fueled by exciting new technologies like smart phones and app development.

Before I go further, let’s be clear—this is good news. In fact, this is AMAZING news for our discipline. We are providing the skills and training that the world is demanding. HOWEVER, growth of this kind also presents a critical challenge and requires thoughtful, strategic and collaborative response at an institutional level.

As educators and academic leaders, we must work together to develop a sustainable model for meeting the growing need, and fulfilling our role in educating for 21st century challenges. Ultimately, I feel that the boom and bust model for computer science and informational technology education needs to become a thing of the past. We need to approach our growth model with an eye toward the future we all know is coming. And we need faculty, administers, government agencies, funding organizations and other partners to be working together toward more innovative education policy and resources to support it in classrooms and departments.

While we have a great deal of work ahead of us and some very real logistical and budgetary concerns to face, I want to take a few minutes to address two priorities that we will need to keep in mind in shaping the future of computer science education for the 21st century. The first is the importance of growing the pipeline and investing in K-12 programs. For all the growth we have seen in computing and information technology over the last several decades, we have not really seen enough integration of computer science into the standard progression of high school science.

The last study of high school transcripts completed by the National Center for Educational Statistics in 2009 found that only 19 percent of high school seniors took some form of computer class, down 6 percentage points from 2000. And of high schools offering computer science, 51 percent reported that it was very common for students who would be good fits for the course, both in interest and ability, skipped CS because CS classes are deemed less important. If we are going to shed the misnomer that Computer Science is only a passing fad, this certainly needs to change.

We have made some real progress. During my tenure at CISE, we worked on launching several efforts aimed at expanding K-12 programming and increasing the representation of women in computing at all levels. … When the new AP Computer Science Principles course launched last fall, it was the largest such course launch in the College Board’s 60-year history. While the existing AP Computer Science course focuses on the Java programming language, the new course is billed as a creative exploration of real-world problems. It offers a more holistic view of computer science, focusing more on the principles and interdisciplinary nature of computer science. Over 2,500 schools offered the course and over 45,000 students took the AP CSP end-of-course exam in May 2017. And about 350 colleges and universities have communicated their plans to offer credit and/or placement for the course.

Which brings me to the second, but equally important, priority facing our discipline. Part of what makes this new AP course SO successful and SO exciting is that it is designed to appeal to a broader range of students, maybe some students who might have assumed that computers were not for them. And in that sense, it’s already been an enormous success. In just one year – from 2016 to 2017 – the number of underrepresented minorities who took an AP Computer Science exam nearly tripled, from 8,283 to 22,199. The number of girls shot up from 12,642 to 29,708.

We still have work to do. Participation in AP Computer Science is still far from balanced — female students still account for only 27% of all students taking AP Computer Science exams and underrepresented minorities make up just 20%. This problem continues through to higher education, where 83% of university computer science majors are men, and into the workforce as well. Organizations like the National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT) and CRA-W (Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research) are working to increase the representation of women in computing at all levels.

And here at CMU, we have taken proactive steps to encourage greater participation by women and minorities in computer science related studies. For example, in addition to enhancing mentoring and advising resources and creating a more inclusive environment, we have focused more on potential, not on previous access to CS, when considering admission. By successfully weighting prior experience lower in our ranks of preference for admission, we managed in 5 years to increase the enrollment rate of women in computer science majors from 7 percent in 1995 to 42 percent in 2000. Fast forward to today, when women now make up about 50% of the first-year class in SCS. This is 2x the national average. In fact, for the first time in CMU’s history, our university’s total incoming first-year class is more than 50% female.

Before I wrap up, I want to commend you all for being here today, and for embracing the sense of community in approaching these problems. It might be tempting to focus on the particular challenges of your home institutions. But I believe that will only get us so far…