The Virtuous Cycle

Last week we have a celebration of the new CS graduates at Georgia Tech where each graduating student says what their plans are for next year. Other than the few going to grad school, they all have great jobs but the difference I see this year is how many are staying in Atlanta. Any CS student who wants to stay in Atlanta can find a great job in Atlanta.

A large number of companies are moving their headquarters or established large facilities in the Atlanta area and the reasons they give almost always include the students and researchers at Georgia Tech. We're starting to grow a good start-up culture here as well. 

Companies in Atlanta want our students and our research. That helps add to the prestige of Georgia Tech which in turn draws more companies. A virtuous cycle. A similar story is playing out in several other cities across the country and I even saw it in tiny but growing Bozeman where I visited Montana State earlier this week. Computer Science these days plays a major role if not the largest role in many of these industries.

All this growth leads to challenges such as finding the people and resources to meet the growing demands. All told though a good problem to have.

We don't want the success of the STEM fields to come at the expense of the rest of academics. It shouldn't have to be CS vs Classics, Physics or Philosophy. How we make it all successful will be the great challenge in higher education in the years to come.