The role of computer scientists and engineers in our society – address to the UNSW Engineering graduating class of 2019

On 29th August 2019, I had the honour of delivering the officiating address at the UNSW Sydney graduation ceremony for the Faculty of Engineering.

The world, and our profession, have changed significantly since my graduation in the same hall nine years earlier – one significant change is the growing focus on the positive and negative impacts of technology on our society. I chose to make this the focus of my address.

Transcript

Pro-Chancellor Richard Henry, Professor Travis Waller, distinguished guests, graduating students and families. 

Congratulations on graduating from UNSW Sydney, one of the world’s top universities, and particularly from the Faculty of Engineering, home to one of the world’s most challenging and transformative computer science and engineering programs. 

Ever since my first lecture in 2006, UNSW has shaped my life and my career – 2 degrees, my business, my co-founders, my staff, my investors and most importantly, I met wife, Melissa Ran, on campus 11 years ago – so it is both an honour and a privilege to be invited to give the officiating address here today. 

To be honest, I’m not sure that there is much unique wisdom that I can impart today that you can’t find on YouTube. So, instead, I have something for you to think about – something that impacts all of us, as engineers, scientists and educated citizens.

That is: the role of computer scientists and engineers in society today.

Who are we? What are our responsibilities? What impact will we make?

We are the frontline of innovation, building the new economy, creating new industries and solving age-old problems in new ways. When people around the world talk about industry 4.0 and the future of work - they are describing our day jobs. 

The skills that you’ve developed at UNSW, and that you’ll refine in the years ahead, will enable you to get some of the most sought after jobs, build incredible products and services, and potentially become significantly wealthy. If you accept the advantages of being a computer scientist or software engineer then you must be aware of the costs.

Not everything we’ve built is perfect: 

• The websites we trust to keep us informed may deliver news that never happened; 
• The software that connects us to anyone in the world is tearing our wider society apart; 
• the technology being developed for autonomous cars has military applications; 
• the smartphones that improve the quality of our lives can be turned against us to track our every move; and
• The apps that have increased convenience are also increasing income inequality.

It would no longer be unreasonable to assume that somewhere in the world, an AI is being developed to estimate the likelihood of an individual committing a crime with the intention of arresting them in advance – just like in the movies – or failing that, recommend a great deal on a holiday and a cheaper insurance policy.

All of these advances, positive or negative, aren’t happening on their own. Someone is writing that software – soon it will be you. 

Are you responsible for the impact your software has on society? In many professions, an individual can be personally liable if they are negligent, disregard best practices or cut corners. Should the software engineers at Boeing who wrote MCAS for the 737-Max be held accountable if they didn’t follow best practices? Or the software engineers at Uber who developed tools to subvert local laws and avoid detection? We might soon find out. 

Regardless of the outcome, as educated citizens, we have a responsibility to do better, to hold ourselves to higher standards. To understand the limits of our abilities and the trade-offs we are making. 

But it is the positive influence on society, the ability to create something out of nothing that improves the lives of millions, that attracted me to software engineering. It is what attracted me to UNSW and it is the reason I joined Richard Buckland and David Collien to start OpenLearning almost 7 years ago. 

At OpenLearning, our vision is to increase access to quality education to improve the lives of people around the world - we provide a platform that enables anyone to design and deliver courses that are more social, engaging and constructive than was previously possible online. I’m sure many of you have taken courses through OpenLearning and have hopefully seen it improve over the years.

However, the software is only part of what we’ve developed. Only 25% of our team are engineers – we employ marketers, learning designers, managers, financial professionals, customer service staff and many others. 

What makes OpenLearning work is an understanding that we are only part of the solution, that we exist in an ecosystem made up of universities, academics, students, government, companies and society at large. We up-skill our customers, collaborate on research and refine our product. Working with so many stakeholders is not easy but it is necessary if you truly want to make an impact. 

What I’ve learned along the way is that you can’t always build what you want – you don’t have the resources, your assumptions are often wrong or your timing is off. So, trade-offs have to be made, it’s part of life and in many ways, it is the essence of engineering. 

There is a saying, “Anyone can build a bridge that stands, but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that barely stands.” – meaning, that we understand the trade-offs that were made to achieve our goal within a set of constraints.

As you begin your career as an engineer or scientist, you might find the constraints challenging or discover that the rules change quickly. You must adapt to new technologies but also accept new responsibilities. Put theory into practice, work with people across disciplines and cultures to come up with the next big thing and get it to market. 

One day, you may be asked to join an exciting new project that promises to save lives but it may also limit people’s freedom, harm another country or manipulate people’s views. What should you do? As a professional, only you can decide.

How will you make your decision?

In 2008, I began an internship as a software engineer at Macquarie Group – it was the height of the global financial crisis and it seemed like there was plenty of blame to go around. Banks lending to people they shouldn’t have, people taking out loans they couldn’t afford, complex financial products that only an engineer would understand… there was surely a financial crisis but there was also a loss of faith in financial institutions.

During an event for new interns at the bank, one of partners stood up and explained a simple rule that he follows whenever he is unsure if he’s making the right decision. He said, “Imagine that your decision is on the front page of the AFR (Australian Financial Review). Would you be comfortable with your decision? Would you be able to defend it?”

Over 10 years later, I still apply this test on a regular basis.

So, congratulations on becoming computer scientists and engineers, graduates of UNSW Sydney. You have skills and capabilities that almost everyone wants, you have access to amazing opportunities, but you also have a responsibility to act wisely, understand the trade-offs, embrace diversity of all kinds and to use your abilities to make a positive impact on society.

I know that your education at UNSW Sydney has prepared you well, but now, I hope you take those learning, you build upon it and determine how you are going to make the decisions that impact the shape lives and the society at large. Thank you.