Episode 20: CS in 1970s and 80s, on Three Continents

Interview with: What was Computer Science education like in the 1970s 
and 80s? Three Immigrant Computer Scientists who studied CS on 3 continents: 
Europe, South America, and Africa. 

Episode Guide

In this Episode: The 1970s and early 80s were essentially prehistoric times for Computer Science – before even Windows or Apple/MacOS, and well before the internet. So what was Computer Science like in the 1970s and 1980s, around the world? Were there Computer Science departments in universities outside the US? The answer might surprise you! Three prominent immigrant Computer Scientists (now in the US) who grew up and in studied in Europe, in South America, and in Africa. Their countries are, respectively, Yugoslavia, Brazil, and Egypt. Featuring: Dejan Milojicic (IEEE Fellow) of Hewlett Packard Labs, Rico Malvar (NAE Member, IEEE Fellow) of Microsoft, and Amr El Abbadi (ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow) of University of California at Santa Barbara. This is a remix episode, featuring snippets of conversations from Season 1 of the podcast.

• mm.ss: Segment Info (Index)
• 00.46: Introduction to Episode
• 02.14: Yugoslavia: Dejan Milojicic. BSc and MSc in University of Belgrade (Yugoslavia) during  1978-1983 and 1983-1986.
• 24.05: Brazil: Rico Malvar. BS at Universidade de Brasilia during 1974 to 77, and then his MSc at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro during 1978 to 79.
• 35.35: Egypt: Amr El Abbadi. Bachelors in Computer Science, from Alexandria University in Egypt, during  1976-1980.

About the Narrators in this Episode

• Dejan Milojicic (also, Episode 1)
• Rico Malvar (also, Episode 5)
• Amr El Abbadi

Useful Links

• Punched Cards
• IBM 360
• University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia
• Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil
• Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Alexandria University, Egypt
• US Department of State page on Yugoslavia
• US Department of State page on Serbia
• Wikipedia page on Yugoslavia
• Brazil Wikipedia Page
• New York Times’ A Brief History of Brazil
• Egypt’s Baccalaureate Exam: Thanaweya Amma
• Egypt Wikipedia Page
• Lebanon Wikipedia Page
• Wars involving Egypt

Previously on this Podcast

In case you missed it! Previously on the Immigrant Computer Scientists Podcast

• Several anonymous narrators, from across many continents. (Episode 15).
• Our interview with Danqi Chen, Gold Medal winner at IOI (Informatics Olympiad) in 2008 (only woman Gold medal winner), and student in famous Yao Class at Tsinghua University. (Episode 14).
• Our interview with Jelani Nelson, “immigrant” from US Virgin Islands and creator of AddisCoder program in Ethiopia (Episode 13), especially his last segment on IOI data inequity analysis.
• Our third segment (Episodes 9, 10, 11, 12) on Middle East, featuring entrepreneurs and a famous academic family from Iran, Lebanon, and Egypt , starting with the Middle East Entrepreneurs lead episode.
• Our second segment (Episodes 5, 6, 7, 8) featuring Computer Scientists from Brazil, all of whom spent careers in both academia and industry, going To and Fro between Brazil and US, and to and fro between academia and industry.
• Our first segment (Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4) featuring Computer Scientists from Yugoslavia, A Country That No Longer Exists?
• Check them out!

• Credits
  • Music Credits for Podcast
  • The caption picture at top of page is of Berkeley/Oakland shoreline taken from several miles away, from San Francisco’s Marina Green district. The pic was taken at sunset time, so you can see the sunlight momentarily reflecting off windows. Pic taken by Indy Gupta.

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