Utterance

The Department of Computer Technology and Informatics turns 50 at the same time as it is 60 years since the computer GIER came to NTNU. Since then, the computer has changed the world. What will be next?

We have lived as long as data development in Norway and together we have more than 50 years of seniority at IDI. This means that we have been part of an unparalleled development.

A computer arrives from Copenhagen to Gløshaugen in 1962. What is this? What possibilities lie in the machine and can the professional environment contribute to learning how to remove how this new tool can be used?

It was basically about raining. About being able to do larger and more precise mathematical calculations, faster. Since then, the roof has developed many and long seven-mile steps.

From collecting data to

· to keep track of the data,

· delete data and

· create something new.

During these years we have gone from trying to understand what a computer is and can do to a completely complete digitization of society. IDI has gone from being a handful of curious enthusiasts to becoming Norway’s leading educational and research environment in this area. We provide teaching in basic subjects to many other professional environments at the same time that we have developed more and more of our own computer subjects in line with the developments around us.

We have also become more diverse through the fact that we have teamed up with the professional environment at AVH and later at Kalvskinnet and at Gjøvik.

Now Generation Z is starting our studies. These are young people who have always been digital, who were born with a mobile phone in their hand and a computer in their lap. Young people who meet more often in the digital world than in the analogue one, who have their own avatar and may be considering digital detox. (Or they hardly do, it’s probably rather the “aging” in their 50s and 60s who launch such thoughts).

Around the tables at IDI’s anniversary celebration are several of us who remember the time when the mobile phone needed its own wheelbarrow or when the almanac was replaced by a Palm Pilot where we could enter important appointments with a digital pen.

There is a lot to remember and reminisce about on the journey from toy to tool. Faster and faster, more and more, more and more things, possibilities and innovative solutions.

What was everyday life like before Google? Search engines are one of the innovations that originated from IDI. The same has solutions for gaming technology. Truth be told, it is impossible to have to say anything about the enormous data technological development that society and individuals have been exposed to or had a part in developing. But what we can say quickly: It has been a lot of fun to be able to take part in laying the foundations for this development.

Being able to share large amounts of data gives us enormous opportunities. Artificial intelligence processes and finds patterns that we have difficulty using in almost all areas of society. It is about discovering diseases, developing vaccines, uncovering fraud, managing traffic or predicting trends in society. This year we also celebrated another anniversary, namely the 5th anniversary of the Norwegian Open AI Lab – or the AI ​​lab as we like to call it. Here, our professional communities have contributed to technology such as can find out the baby has cerebral palsy very early in life or provide personalized activity guidance as part of or replacement for back pain treatment.

Data has traditionally been a boy’s thing. The stereotype of a gamer is a young guy with a boy’s room full of technical equipment. It is still the case that boys spend more time on computer games than girls, but girls have also taken over the gaming world.

The girls have also occupied the reading rooms and computer laboratories at NTNU to an ever-increasing degree. It is absolutely crucial that we have students and researchers with different life experiences at IDI. This is the only way we can ensure that the technology does not discriminate. There are plenty of examples of the opposite, such as the car manufacturer not taking into account pregnant women, the training app not taking into account the menstrual cycle or the facial recognition technology working best for white men.

We have worked purposefully for at least half of IDI’s lifetime to get more girls to study. Girls and data has become the girls’ project ADA, a targeted initiative to get more girls to choose technology subjects and not least to thrive while they are here.

Sustainability is more than greenwashing with us. We work purposefully so that our subject becomes part of the solution and not part of the problem. The digital world today accounts for almost 15% of the global environmental footprint and this number is increasing.

We are one of the two institutes that has its own deputy director for sustainability. We have several research projects underway to develop Green IT. Most prominent here is IDI’s center for excellent IT education, SFU Excited, whose main goal is to incorporate sustainability into all education at IDI. In addition, IE’s center for sustainable ICT or CESICT originates from IDI. CESICT’s vision is «knowledge for the development and further development of sustainable ICT solutions for sustainability». When more and more of our lives are digitized, we must do what we can to ensure that the energy and resource accounts turn positive.

After all, we are two well-grown boys who are still well above average preoccupied with gadgets and gizmos. We are jubilant technology optimists. At the same time, we see that technology has been involved in developing and researching, also providing opportunities that are not just good. This is a powerful tool that can be used for both good and bad. For example, we are once again leaving technological traces where we still travel. Recognition and tracking of individuals provides a basis for control. The technology gives authoritarian regimes powerful tools for both surveillance and manipulation.

What will be the next seven-mile leap?

The technology is being integrated into more and more areas. We are facing a completely digital future. At the same time, we see more and more things that interact and solve tasks for us, without us being aware of it. The transition between man and technology is going to blur more. Maybe we can connect extra capacity to the body? The new smartwatch will soon know more about us than what we do ourselves. If we don’t want to use it to pay with Rema, we can get a chip under our skin. If we don’t want to use 3D glasses to enter a virtual alternative reality, we can put on a small lens and instantly find ourselves in a metaverse where we participate with an avatar of ourselves.

Knowledge for a better world is our guiding star. It is about creating digital quality of life. We must both master and maneuver in a different reality, both as individuals and as a society. The social consequences of technology development will probably have a greater place in IDI’s consciousness in the years to come.

Thank you to everyone who has put in a formidable effort these years.

Now let’s congratulate each other on the day. We are going to celebrate!

And if someone asks what the birthday children want to answer: We have many foreign students who take a doctorate with us. Well, we want more of our Norwegian students to continue as researchers here with us. Today, they are in such demand that the business world outdoes each other in the hunt for the young candidates. And it will be difficult to say no. We absolutely need the all-digital Generation Z to be well represented as researchers and teachers at IDI when we have to take the next seven-mile steps!