Computer Science: After Transforming the World, the Impact of Computer Science Will Accelerate Further

By Dr. Robert Steele
Chair of Computer Science

The title of this blog would appear hyperbolic in nature, but let me describe some of the simple, publicly available facts evidencing that Computer Science has and will continue to transform the world at a rapid rate affecting millions of people every day.

As mentioned above, Computer Science and its sub-field, Artificial Intelligence, are experiencing a jobs boom.  This is evidenced by many of the top US jobs now being Computer Science-based jobs:

• Machine learning engineer–average base pay, $147,300₁, ranked 1^st in ‘best jobs in the US₂
• Data scientist–median base pay, $131,000₂, ranked 1st in "best jobs in the US"₃
• Computer vision engineer–average base pay, $158,300₂
• Software engineer–median base pay, $104,000₁, ranked 10th "best job in the nation"₂
• Data engineer–median base pay, $131,673₁, ranked 8th "best job in the nation"₃
• Software engineering manager–median base pay $153,000, ranked 43rd ‘best job in the nation₃
• Enterprise architect–median base pay $122,585₄

Drivers of the accelerating rate of Computer Science implementation include:

• the current trend towards ubiquitous Internet-based video communication;
• cloud-based storage moving to dominate all data storage globally;
• the ongoing exponential growth in computational performance, even with the slowing of Moore’s Law;
• the ability to automatically find an unlimited number of previously unknowable relationships between attributes within our physical and digital worlds thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning; and
• an increasing ability to ‘predict the future’ via machine learning and predictive modeling techniques in various domains and niches.

These currently emerging technologies are qualitatively and quantitatively more impactful than even those that have come before them over the last 20 years. By appreciating the reality of these impressive facts, it can already be predicted what the future jobs landscape will look like over the coming one to two decades.

For more information on this topic, I also encourage you to also watch my recent Webinar outlining the drivers of the current jobs boom in artificial intelligence. In my webinar, I covered the wide-spread use and the commercial development of the Web, despite it being only a little over 20 years old, and the rapid adoption of smartphone usage within the last 10 years (with now an estimated 3.5 billion smartphones in use worldwide, for a world human population of 7.7 billion). I also discussed that, as of August 2020, seven of the world’s top ten companies ranked by market capitalization were Computer Science-based companies including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Facebook, Alibaba, and Tencent.

If you have any additional questions about computer science in general or specific computer science programs offered by Capitol Tech, free to contact me at rjsteele@captechu.edu.

<sub>1. Indeed 2020 salaries
2. Indeed 2019 Best Jobs in US
3. Glassdoor’s 2019 50 Best Jobs in America
4. Salary based upon 2019 Glassdoor salary data</sub>