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How Software is Harming Science, Engineering

August 30th, 2011

A recent column by Netscape co-founder, software entrepreneur, and noted Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen caused a stir in the tech community. Andreessen postulated that the software industry was “eating the world” and “poised to take over broad swathes of the economy.” This is delusional.

It’s a clear case of someone with a hammer – Andreessen developed software, ran software companies, and now invests in software companies – seeing everything as a nail. The irony is, software is hardly a hotbed of innovation.

While technology races ahead in many other fields, software has advanced but meagerly in the past 20 years. In terms of solving grand challenges, software has largely failed to deliver. Take the case of voice recognition. It’s much better than it was in areas like airlines’ reservation phone trees. But despite billions of research dollars no company has produced commercially available, affordable voice recognition software that can understand and transcribe, from voice to text, conversations involving multiple voices. Likewise, voice recognition software requires training to work well – it’s not speaker independent. Yes, an IBM (IBM) team did take on live Jeopardy! champions and beat them but the Herculean effort required to program a supercomputer to accomplish this just illustrates the enormous chasm that continues to exist between software and the solution of truly great challenges.

Compare this to advances in fields like DNA profiling and decoding. Over the course of a mere two decades, the ability to sequence or perform tests on DNA has become orders of magnitude cheaper – even to the point that sub-$100 DNA testing services will likely emerge within the next three years. Or how about the field of 3D printers, a mind-bending class of devices that fabricate 3-dimensional objects and even devices with moving parts. It can do this in a matter of minutes by layering precise patterns of materials painstakingly and accurately, with the help of software and smart computers (note: software plays a supporting role here!). In the race to innovate and serve the developing world, companies like General Electric (GE) are developing medical imaging technologies that cost 1/10th or 1/20th the price of comparable devices sold in the U.S.

Yes, software has made some limited progress in key areas. Search engines have had a material impact on the world. Some types of enterprise software have made a huge difference in business efficiency. But I’m hard-pressed to think of any other software-based product that has enabled revolutionary changes in society due to the innovative nature of the product and not to the innovative way people use the product. And, of course, Andreessen does give a nod to the other enablers of the growth of software such as cheap Internet-ready devices, the global telecommunications grid, and the microprocessor.

Andreessen’s portfolio of companies includes many that are highly touted but thoroughly unoriginal. Twitter is, basically, another way to do SMS using the Internet. Facebook is Friendster 3.0 hacked up by some kids in a door room that has enjoyed good timing and deployed excellent UI. And then there’s Groupon, an enterprise that has achieved a single feat of innovation – creating dubious new accounting terminology to justify inflated IPO valuations.

In fact, I’ll make a bold statement: I believe that software is draining talent needed in other areas of science and engineering. Smart kids in college major in computer science rather than mechanical engineering because that’s where the money is. Yet some smart kid coding social games for Zynga serves very little societal purpose – particularly when that same kid could have instead decided to build innovative low-cost drip irrigation systems to serve famers in the developing world where irregular irrigation, dwindling water supplies, and poor infrastructure are a crushing trifecta.

The last thing we need is a world consumed by software, Marc. Please invest in more startups that seek to change the world in a meaningful way, and not just to make a mint in social media and useless software companies.

Source:http://www.businessweek.com/technology/how-software-is-harming-science-engineering-08252011.html?chan=rss_topEmailedStories_ssi_5

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Tags: Engineering Science Software

Being in control helps keep customers loyal

October 18th, 2010

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Trihedral Engineering develops and retails software that helps companies monitor patterns and fluctuations in water consumption, electricity use, chemical levels and much more. Are the pumps running? Is the radar working right? These are the questions their software answers.

Such software is part of the field called SCADA — for “supervisory control and data acquisition” — and the clients who use it are understandably picky about getting the correct information.

Patrick Cooke is director of marketing at the Bedford-based company, and he spends a great deal of time making himself available to clients — and making sure the rest of the company is, as well. Tech support is an important part of the company’s brand and identity.

Cooke tells of a customer in North Carolina who keeps three phone numbers pinned by his desk: Trihedral’s tech support number; the tech support person’s home phone number; and the number for Trihedral’s president.

Partly as a result of their unswerving focus on delivering customer service and customer support, Cooke believes Trihedral enjoys significant client loyalty. (Or, in Cooke’s words, “Our customers love the company.”)

And the company strives to make tech support a way to love the customers right back. Cooke notes that he once tracked down a tech support person on vacation at Disney World when a customer needed to talk to him.

Cooke says, “The element of customer service is critical. When someone calls in, the phone is answered by a person. The idea is that if you call in, you get an answer — that’s really important.”

Organizations that have less of an ongoing conversation with their customers may not feel the need for that kind of personal touch. Still, all entrepreneurs need to pay attention to their engagement with their customers.

Meeting in person is also key.

Cooke sees trade shows as a great way to deepen relationships with existing clients, partly because they efficiently allow chances for personal interaction with a variety of people; the company is represented at 18 to 20 shows a year, he estimates. Preparation begins well ahead of time, in order to maximize the impact of the days spent at the event itself.

“We send out emails to existing customers and future customers, saying that we’re going to be at the show and what we’re going to be showing,” Cooke explains. Typically these emails will describe new features and new benefits of their software.

Eric Crowell, director of the Saint Mary’s University Business Development Centre, says, “At the (centre), we often talk about the importance of seeking out and attending trade shows in your field. There’s nothing else you can do that confers quite the same benefits.

“After all, it’s an industry event that’s going to bring you face to face with existing and potential clients, as well as vendors, competitors and various newsmakers. And what is everyone there to talk and learn about? Succeeding in your field. That’s a golden opportunity and one all business people need to take advantage of.”

Trihedral also uses social media like YouTube to reach the people they’re selling to. “A YouTube video puts a very human face on what we do,” says Cooke. It’s one more way to connect with people.

That’s critical, says Crowell. “As a business owner, you want to connect with people in as many meaningful ways as possible. The more ways you find to do it, and the more meaningful the connections, the more positive the effect.”

‘When someone calls in, the phone is answered by a person. The idea is that if you call in, you get an answer — that’s really important.’

Source:http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1207454.html

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Posted in Software News

Tags: Engineering Software

Carnegie mellon software engineering institute names new program director

October 17th, 2010

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The Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) recently named Anita Carleton director of its Software Engineering Process Management (SEPM) Program. As director of the SEPM Program, Carleton will oversee the SEI’s software process and measurement initiatives, which include the internationally recognized Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) framework, which helps organizations increase the maturity of their processes to improve long-term business performance, and the Team Software Process (TSP), a software engineering method designed to yield high-quality software and high-performance teams.

“For the past 22 years, I have been committed to the SEPM Program mission of providing leadership in software engineering process, metrics, engineering, and quality management as well as capability evaluation and assessments,” said Carleton.

“While the SEPM Program’s models of best practices and organizational capability have become the worldwide standard used throughout the software industry, the challenge for the future will be to establish engineering management practices that demonstrate several characteristics. Practices should integrate discipline and agility, consider quality and schedule, be data-driven and performance-based, and engage all members of the development team, engineering and management alike. I look forward to continuing to work with our global software engineering community to achieve this goal.”

Carleton has been with the SEI for the most of the organization’s 25-year history and has led various projects in the areas of software process improvement, process measurement, and the Team Software Process. In 1990, she launched the software measurement initiative at the SEI, which provided quantitative methods that could be used to improve the management and control of software systems development and maintenance. Carleton also is co-author of the book Measuring the Software Process: Statistical Process Control for Software Process Improvement.

She is the recipient of an award from Dr. Barry Boehm, the Director, Defense Research & Engineering (DDR&E) Software and Computer Technology office, for her leadership in defining a core set of measures and measurement definition frameworks that served as a basis for collecting well-understood and consistent software data throughout the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

“Anita’s impressive vision, energy, and leadership are an asset to the SEPM Program as well as the entire SEI. I am delighted to have her leading this program that is so important to the SEI and the software engineering community,” said Paul Nielsen, SEI director and CEO.

Before joining the SEI, Carleton held various technical and management positions at GTE Government Systems, where she designed, developed, and tested software for the Minuteman and Peacekeeper missile systems. Her professional background also includes serving as the lead systems modeling and simulation engineer responsible for conducting tire tread wear studies utilizing experimental design techniques, statistical analysis techniques, and finite element analysis at the Goodyear Technical and Research Center.

Carleton holds a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics with emphasis in statistics and industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University and is a senior member of the IEEE Computer Society.

Source:http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=512558&Itemid=30