Crimson Crux

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world’s oldest scientific and educational computing society, turns 60 this year.

By May 2007, I’ll be completing my first year as a professional member and my second year overall (I was first a student member and officer of UP ACM). Admittedly, I haven’t squeezed every bit out of my membership — I haven’t touched ACM’s vast digital library in a year, nor have I taken even one of the free online courses.

Still, I value my membership for two things. First, I enjoy reading the Communications of the ACM (CACM) magazines, which keep me up to date with a field I tangoed with for four years in UP. I love to acquire and reacquire CS knowledge, even though at times I have trouble understanding the articles. My favorite articles are those related to what I do and where I work today — namely, blogging/webmastering and the Internet, respectively. The only time when reading the magazines becomes more of a chore than a pleasure is when I’m in serious mag backlog.

Second — and I’m going to unabashedly say this — being a “Member of the ACM” (MACM) looks good on the CV. Of course, it’s a paid membership. Anybody can be a member, really. Even someone who mistakes portable DVD players for laptops.

The travesty in ‘buying’ your membership lies in not trying to know more about CS and its diverse disciplines and how they meld into the everyday things around you. The travesty lies in ‘buying’ the title “MACM” to improve your resumé, not your brain.

Of course, there are always two sides to every story. There are people who have reasons not to become an ACM member. One such person is Kent Pitman, a former ACM member and columnist for the now-defunct ACM magazine Lisp Pointers.

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[I don't want to turn this blog into a repository of my editorials, but I feel the need to republish one, again. This time it's The UP Parser's February 2005 centerpiece. Certain people in UP Diliman's Department of Computer Science are misunderstanding the concept of the UP CS Network, an alliance of student organizations dedicated only to the DCS' well-being, and controversies are afoot. Thus, the need for this article. By the way, please don't mind the anachronisms in this one.]

As the Computer Science Week draws near, it is only fitting that CS students, regardless of extra-curricular affiliation, unite for one common goal — the betterment of the Department.

In what promises to be greatest CS story for this academic year, the CS Network has been established, bringing together eight CS-related organizations under one “mother org”. This groundbreaking alliance serves to foster camaraderie and cooperation among the eight organizations which, although related to CS one way or another, still maintain different mindsets, different agendas.

But these differences are what the CS Network aims to harness. Rather than being sources of dispute and competition, the divergent strengths of each organization shall meld into one, potent entity. One can already see the beginnings of an alliance envied all throughout the College of Engineering; the vast, diverse talents of UP CURSOR and UP CompSoc merging with the determined, academic thrusts of UP ACM and UnPLUG, enhanced by the volunteering heart of the CRS Team, Engineering Webteam, and DCS Student Assistants, and furthered by the journalistic spirit of The UP Parser.

But as the saying goes, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. It is imperative that every organization within the CS Network fulfill the duties assigned to them. And, in the same way that everyone should whole-heartedly engage in alliance activities, no one should be left out. No one should dominate, and neither should one be a subordinate. This is because the CS Network is a gathering of equals, with equal rights and equal responsibilities.

These same responsibilities also extend to Department Faculty and the CS Representatives. Such a bold venture as the CS Network would miserably fail without the support of CS teachers and administration; it mustn’t be forgotten that the growth of the Department lies in a healthy, bilateral relationship between the learned and the learners.

And without the guidance and leadership provided by the CS Reps, the alliance would be a knight-less horse, full of sinew but lacking bravura. The four representatives who envisioned the CS Network and turned it into a stunning reality now face the task of guiding the “umbrella org” in its infancy stages, as well as ensure a smooth hand-over to the next batch of CS Reps. The alliance will be their legacy — regardless of whether it succeeds or fails.

As we celebrate the 24th anniversary of the Department of Computer Science, let us likewise celebrate the birth of the CS Network and rally around its cause. For this alliance — another first in College history — is ready to prove that organizations don’t have to be bitter rivals, but rather allies in forging the future.

Long live the CS Network!

[With UP DIliman ushering in a new academic year, this September 2004 editorial of The UP Parser is due for a reprint. I believe the topic is still relevant; I just edited the few anachronisms in the original article.]

Is the university’s Computer Science program still in?

There was a time when only a select few would be admitted to CS, a program which may be truly called a ‘quota course’. Then came the IT boom of the 90s, a period which found our department opening wide its doors to the flood of students intent on making it into the rich and promising IT world. This resulted in the Department of Computer Science (DCS) expanding the freshmen quota to 120, a number which still stands today.

But recently, there seems to be a slide in CS interest. While the number of freshmen enrollees has remained steady, more and more scholars are shifting out to other courses, some in their first year of stay. This may be attributed to the difficult subjects in the BS CS program, with students not finding the course comfortable or endurable at all. But the one reason which the department itself suggests is that incoming scholars regard CS as just a means of entering into UP Diliman. This may sound unbelievable for all the CS students who bit nail and toe praying for entrance into the CS program.

But as Dr. Ronald Tuñgol, former department chair*, puts it, the increasing number of shiftees has its benefits. This unwanted ‘pruning’ leaves behind the cream of the crop, the students who truly have the desire and fervor to learn CS, the scholars whose minds are adept and capable of handling the duress of rigorous training. Also, a lesser number of students means an enhanced quality of education: student-to-computer ratio improves, instructor handling of classes gets better, and so on. In short, the resources needed for education, both tangible and intangible, are concentrated on a more manageable student population.

And these advantages may very well be the edge that a UP CS graduate needs in the tough IT world. Here in the country, the UP grad, frequently nitpicked for his or hers shortcomings in communication skills, faces gritty competition from Ateneo and De La Salle alumni, and even from the ‘Microsoft babies’, the AMA-CU students. Outside of the Philippines, Pinoy IT professionals face even more daunting contenders in IT-wise nationals such as the English-proficient, low-cost-labor Indians, already major players in the outsourcing market (read: call centers, software development).

So while the perceived dip in interest in UP Diliman’s CS program may seem disappointing, it may go a long way in helping students who are serious and diligent in their attempts to become the new players in the IT world. Who knows, maybe everyone’s vision of UP’s BS CS being the unquestioned finest Computer Science program in the country will cease to be a mere castle in the sky.

*Dr. Cedric Festin is the new Department Chair effective this semester. Dr. Tuñgol is on leave for AY 2005-06.

Dr. Jose Rizal’s letter to Father Vicente Garcia in 1891 is both applicable for his times and ours, making it prophetic in nature.

In his words, “…our talented men have died…bequeathing to us nothing more than the fame of their name…all that these men have studied, learned, and discovered will die with them and end in them, and we shall go back to recommence the study of life.” This is true even in our modern society that is purportedly conducive to the free flow of information. If all the knowledge acquired by every Filipino since the time of the Spaniards — whether layman or scientist — was passed onto the next generation and not taken to the grave, one could imagine the vast ‘savings’ we could have had in scientific progress, in terms of time and labor.

Rizal also wrote in his letter, “Here you have the individual as the only one who improves and not the race.” Sad, but true. No one is more disgusting than a Filipino who hoards knowledge and refuses to share it with others — consciously or unconsciously, it matters not. Every country needs the full potential of its citizens in order to conquer whatever quagmire, stagnation, or downward-spiral it finds itself in, and it needs its people to function as one united intellect if it is to transcend its usual and expected bounds for national growth, especially in terms of scientific advancement.

By ‘one united intellect’, I did not mean people acting inhumanly as an uncreative collective in the nature of the supposed “hive mind” of ants and bees. ‘One united intellect’ means that even though citizens may pursue different branches of learning, the diverse knowledge they possess is made available for everybody; whether or not people would actually choose not to absorb some parts of that knowledge is irrelevant. What’s important is that the information is there, open for perusal and improvement, and not tucked inside one and only one brain.

Let me end by (mis)quoting a line I first read from a computer game — “He who denies you access to information dreams himself your master.” An axiom to be followed by despots and monarchs, but to be loathed by the democratic many. A Filipino who buries with himself a lifetime’s worth of knowledge denies the nation even the most minor of advancements, and thus subconsciously wallows in the delusion that he is a master over his countrymen, while in truth he is slave to his gross imperfections.