Microsoft's Mundie: IT needed to solve global woes
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Scientists need the same sort of computer breakthrough that the spreadsheet brought to business users decades ago, says Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer.
Mundie gave a speech at Harvard University here on Tuesday to discuss coming "disruptions" in computing and to argue that computer science is fundamental to solving daunting global problems, including energy, environment, health care, and education.
Without taking advantage of advances in computing, adjacent fields of nanotechnology and biotechnology will not move as fast as they could, he said. At the same time, he lamented how computer science is seen as "so yesterday."
"It's stunning how much people want to fund the fads and they don't put any emphasis on how core computing is," Mundie said during questions. "I hope we can come together and realize that we have to invest in the future of computing if we want a future in all these other areas."
Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer urges students to think about coming disruptions in computing.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)The Harvard talk was one of four Mundie is giving this week in an effort to stir excitement in the study of computing, with both computer science students and people in other fields, such as medicine or material science. Less than 100 students and faculty came to the Harvard talk on Tuesday where he demonstrated some of how Microsoft's research can be applied to energy and the environment.
Computing is becoming increasingly embedded in everyday devices, in everything from phones to cars. But even though people are increasingly familiar with digital technologies, there are still disruptive changes on the near horizon, Mundie said.
"We think we understand it but in fact it's at a time that the flux in computing overall is as great as it's ever been," he said.
The amount of computation that's available will continue to increase with multicore processors, which will enable new applications. That includes what Microsoft calls "natural language processing," where people can interact with computers in more intuitive ways than the familiar mouse and graphical user interface. An example is Microsoft's Project Natal, motion-sensing technology where people can use arms and legs to play games.
Two other big technology changes, he said, are three-dimensional displays and cloud computing, where people can tap banks of servers over the Internet for data-intensive jobs.
High-end demos
Mundie showed Microsoft Computational Science Studio, a tool designed by Microsoft Research in the U.K. to allow scientists to run complex and data-intensive computer simulations.
Science Studio could be used to project the impact of rain forest deforestation in South America on other regions of the world. The tool is designed to help experts from different disciplines create a model around different sources of data and visualize simulations.
In this example, the application tapped data centers off-site to run simulations of how changes to the rate of deforestation would affect average temperatures in the U.S.
Generating these models is very practical not just to scientists but to policy makers as well, Mundie said. "Is it better to pay the Brazilians not to cut down trees or to develop genetically engineered crops that can grow in temperatures that are five degrees hotter?" he said. "Those are the kind of choices that our society is going to have to deal with."
In another demo, Mundie showed how a researcher can optimize output from a wind farm. Using an 8-processor computer with a three-dimensional display and pen-based input, Mundie was able to view how different wind turbine blade shapes affect wind flow.
Several energy technology companies are already using IT aggressively. The idea of the smart grid is essentially overlaying digital communications and controls onto the electricity grid. Start-up eSolar uses embedded processors on thousands of mirrors to track the sun and generate the most heat possible with its solar concentrator.
Cloud computing opens up more possibilities for far-reaching energy research, Mundie said. One example is TerraPower, a Seattle-area nuclear power company that has attracted Bill Gates and former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold as investors.
TerraPower is designing a "traveling-wave nuclear reactor" that could use the spent fuel from traditional nuclear reactors and make electricity from it for decades. To speed its research, the company is using high-end computation, which only now is accessible to start-up companies because of cloud computing, Mundie said.
"These are the types of technologies where scientists, engineers, and computer scientists have to come forward, explore them and, if we can make them work, then of course they represent a real discontinuity in the quest for high-scale, zero carbon energy sources," he said.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin. 
The big question is though, does it really need to be as big as it is? Inefficiency is rife and has been for 15 years, probably longer. The positive is millions of extra jobs created. The negative is the longterm and widespread use of third rate products, the tying of users into those third rate products, and an overall stifling of innovation. No concern to MS of course, whose coffers keep overflowing. It's like having a car that always needs servicing, far more than any other car, even though it uses the same parts. Sure, it provides mechanics and third party companies plenty of business and creates jobs, but how much of this is superfluous?
MS may want to solve the world's problems but, really, they are a dinosaur that needs to prove to me they are still relevant. Some would argue they have never been relevant. At least Bill Gates is using chunks of his hardfought (but ill-gotten?) gains to help the world now through his philanthropic pursuits. He married well.
Just my 2 cents worth.
You guys give MS too much credit.
1. Remember IBM? (Lotus Notes, Domino, AIX, mainframes, RS/6000s, WebSphere, etc.)
2. Oracle (their database, their flavor of Unix, PeopleSoft, etc.)
3. SAP
4. Sun Micro
5. Linux solutions that compete with all of the above.
6. So many countless more (WebLogic, EMC, Google, etc. etc.)
In fact, remember these guys who were around even in the early days:
1. Think Novell (Netware etc.)
2. Remember Lotus (123, Notes, etc.)
3. WordPerfect and other editors
4. Sybase
You guys spend so much time hating on MS, you seem to have forgotten about the rest of the world!
The only thing I consider MS have contributed is to the swelling of IT personnel ranks around the world. But I argue that this is partly because their products are heavily flawed and compromised from the start and need more personnel to maintain and patch up.
Not MS hating, just annoyed that they get far more credit than they deserve. They are a chapter in history, not the whole book, and your list proves that. It feels like I am hearing revisionist history with all things to do with MS, and this has been going on for a whole generation now.
You may have inadvertently forgotten the Anti-Virus Software OEMs (the SYMANTEC) and the slew of Service Providers (Jobs-Baby-Jobs) who provide for the protection against the infectious diseases (oops... Viruses) coming through all those hundreds and hundreds of millions of "open" Windows.
I don't understand how you can say that. If anything, IBM has a much bigger lock on the IT industry than Microsoft. So too, do the security vendors. MS's main presence in enterprise IT is Windows, Office, Active Directory, and Exchange for the most part. Yes - there's much more -- but these are the main bread winners. If you see MS getting too much credit, it's probably because you're looking at the wrong articles.
And to anyone claiming that MS products just serve to keep people employed:
1. As far as jobs are created without introducing artificial in-effieciencies -- that's a Good Thing. If a company thinks "hmm.. if we deploy xx solution (from whichever company) and it will cost us x amount of money and we'll need x amount of people to keep it running, but it'll generate z amount of revenue that makes it more than worth it" -- well, that's a Good Thing.
2. Again - regarding the claim that MS products are "so flawed" that they require more personnel to maintain -- that's just a pure falsehood. Just a pure falsehood. As a blanket statement, that's absolutely worthless and does nothing except expose your bias. All enterprise solutions have certain sweet spots. Some are tailored to small-scale deployments, some to medium scale deployments, some to large scale deployments. The larger the scale, typically, the more personnel you require. The greater the expertise of the poeple, the less people you require (but you pay more per head). The more esoteric the solution, the harder it is to find that skillset (so the more you pay). There are so many more factors that go into the personnel cost. Any blanket statement like the one you made is just worthless.
IT cannot solve all the world problems. You cannot remove despotic greed and religious hatred (both of which are very common in the third world) with IT.
What you need is to change the human heart... a LOT of human hearts. No server (or OS, or network tech) on the planet is going to do that.
"IT required to solve global woes" does not parse as "IT can solve all the problems in the world including poverty, hunger, illiteracy, etc."
In other words -- if you're trying to be annoying with your comments, you're succeeding.
"IT required to solve global woes" does parse into "all global woes" (though notice that I only mentioned two).
Maybe if you stopped your computer worship for awhile and went outside, you might realize that there's more than just 'global warming' and a few other cherry-picked causes that need solving.
It's much easier said than done.
I have to agree with you that IT isn't the solution, but it can be part of the overall solution.
If you are willing to look upon the world with an open mind that is receptive to change and new ideas, then even you could be part of the solution as well. The first human heart to change- is your own. That's something a lot of people never realize.
You sir, are the one in need of perspective. Or at the very least, you just need to open your mind a tiny crack and read and understand the article.
The long and short of it -- Mundie is trying to say that there is an IT component to the environment, healthcare, education etc. issues. He is not saying "IT is the solution". He is saying IT can help -- in more areas than people realize -- and it's more important than people realize. Simple really. Now if you disagree with that, that's one thing. But blindly misinterpreting the very purpose of the article just so you can say something negative is just idiotic.
Such as:
Microsoft: We innovate and invent. For example, solar energy and the sun.
People with a clue: No you didn't. Both the sun and solar energy capture devices like solar panels have existed for decades.
The same is true about smart meters and smart energy grids.
Well, Commander_Spock and Crew would hasten to add that - "The Spreadsheet (LOTUS 1-2-3) That Revolutionized The World" - Should Do It Again!
Long Lives Lotus 1-2-3 and OS/2 Warp!
"Live Long And Prosper"!
The software industry is way overpaid for not so much gain in solving global woes.
We don't need to waste any more money to be squandered away by microsoft executives. We can develop excellent computer programs nowadays worth less than $10,000 to help solve problems and not spend $10 B to give to Microsoft to build those insecure behemoth programs that would do incrementally small insignificant things to solve real world problems.
People should stop buying Word processing programs from Microsoft. There is nothing that can be improved about it. The same with spreadsheets and presentations. It cannot be improved to do beyond what you would use them for. So there is no sense paying the Microsoft Tax every year for the upgrades or updates.
And with this global problems, I have several friends who have been using clusters of linux servers to do parallel computing to model and help solve various global problems, being funded by National Science Foundation for a pittance, and yet it can be done without spending billions.
- by xanthorp November 4, 2009 12:04 PM PST
- What a joke! This Microsoft mouthpiece talks of saving the world while his company's software hosts the bot-nets and malware that damage it. (How much electricity is wasted by spam? Ever stop to think about that?)
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