Newsletter Volume 27 Issue 1, Jan 2015
From The Editor
Our January 2015 Issue brings news of advances which can bring benefits not just to the ICT sector but to society at large.
“The Australian Government appears to be upping the ante on the US NIST approach we looked at in the December 2014 article ICT Metrics: NIST’s New Measurement Science Plan.”
This quote is from an article about the Australian ICT Statistics Review, which has the ambitious goal of measuring the total contribution of ICT to the Australian economy. The 16/01/2015 Discussion Paper on the Review notes: “The ICT sector is critical to Australia’s national and global economic performance and it is important to understand the contribution the sector makes to the overall economy. However, measuring ICT is broader than measuring the ICT sector alone.” See below, ICT Statistics for Australia.
The CrossTalk January/February 2015 Issue, Software Education Today, looks at “the perceived disconnect between academia and industry in preparing our graduates for immediate real-world integration in the science and technology industry.” The Issue starts with a significant paper from North Dakota State University (NDSU), which asks why graduating computer science students lack essential skills, giving some interesting results from other recent research as well as their own findings. For a brief extract and links, see below,Missed Expectations: Where CS Students Fall Short in the Software Industry.
The “knowledge deficiencies” identified in the above CrossTalk article could soon be much more significant if the use of functional programming languages becomes more widespread.
A ScienceDaily, January 23, 2015 article describes a new functional programming language for hardware design, noting that “in contrast to traditional methods, it is not necessary to verify and re-verify everything for each step of the design process.” There is large corporate sector interest in this work but “some reluctance amidst all the interest” in terms of re-training staff and availability of functional programmers. However the article is optimistic, noting that “Apple released its ‘Swift’ language recently, a functional language for app development. Knowing Apple, they will really start pushing the language in the near future. This hopefully means we will soon have an army of programmers familiar with functional languages”. See below, Massive chip design savings to be realized.
Current Issue
Articles in the current Issue cover:
ICT Statistics for Australia
“ICT is an important enabler of innovation and contributes to productivity growth. It influences all aspects of the innovation process: aiding research and development; influencing the flow of knowledge; being integral to the running of organisations both large and small; being a vehicle for networking and collaboration; and also in many cases being the actual innovation product itself.”
Missed Expectations: Where CS Students Fall Short in the Software Industry
“There were five categories in which the knowledge deficiency was identified in newly hired recent graduates, even after the company made an effort to identify them during the interview process.”
Massive chip design savings to be realized
“The current process calls for extensive testing after each design step — a massively expensive state of affairs. The newly developed, so-called functional programming language makes it possible to prove, in advance, that a design transformation is a hundred percent error-free.”
Events
“The World’s most successful Awards Program”
Consensus (www.consensus.com.au) runs a series of Awards Programs that identify the most innovative technology designed and developed in Australia (and some in New Zealand ). Over 400 evaluations of innovation have been conducted by the 130 Judges since the Awards were started in 2000. Recent independent analysis of the Winners of the Awards shows that 9 out of 10 (90%) of the Winners of Consensus Awards have gone on to perform exceptionally well internationally. The same research showed that across the board, the companies have enjoyed over 1200% increase in sales or value since they have won Awards.
Based upon these achievements, Consensus can truly claim to be the World’s Most Successful Awards Program. In April 2015, a Consensus Showcase will profile over 100 CEOs of previous winners. The value of the companies that will be present is in excess of $8 Billion. At the same event, Consensus will be presenting the Consensus Student Innovation Awards, Consensus IT Professional Awards, Consensus IT Writers Awards and the BigData Innovation Awards. For more information please emailcontact@consensus.com.au
Wishing all our readers a great year in 2015.
Ted Smillie
QESP Chairman