If David Patterson had his way, the president of the United States would congratulate top code jockeys just like the commander-in-chief applauds the winners of the Super Bowl.
That would send a message about the importance of technology intelligence and skills, argues Patterson, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and president of the Association for Computing Machinery, a group that runs a major student coding contest.
"[US presidents] meet the winners of the football championship, right?" Patterson says. "Gee, wouldn't it be wonderful if the presidents would meet the winners of the programming contest? Wouldn't that be a better world?"
After US students earlier this month made their worst showing in the 29-year history of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, Patterson and others are wondering whether the United States does enough to encourage programming talent. The top US school finished in a tie for 17th place. Students from China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University took the top honours, continuing a gradual ascendance of Asian and Eastern European schools during the past decade or so. The last time a US institution won the world championship was in 1997.
Some argue the results don't necessarily mean much, given the way foreign schools may put more emphasis on the contest. What's more, the number of entrants has mushroomed, from fewer than 650 teams in 1994 to more than 4,100 this year.
Patterson, though, thinks there's more to the US decline — viewed by some as a sign the country's tech leadership is in trouble.
ACM's leader knows a thing or two about creating important technology: He played a key role in the development of RISC and was involved in a Berkeley networking project that led to technology used by Internet companies such as Inktomi.
ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com recently spoke with Patterson about ACM's contest, the state of student tech talent in the United States, and how outsourcing is affecting the field: the interview starts on the next page.
