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Bill Gates Speaks at UWaterloo

2K views 13 replies 14 participants last post by  goravens 
#1 ·
When Gates speaks, students clamour to hear



By SIMON AVERY

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 Posted at 9:57 PM EDT

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard to create the world's largest software company, will sweep into Ontario Thursday and stoke student enthusiasm for computer science.

But the chairman of Microsoft Corp. will be preaching to the converted on the campus of the University of Waterloo, where thousands of students have clamoured for tickets to see him speak before a select audience of 650.

“If a famous rock star came to campus, I don't even think he or she would get as much attention as Bill Gates.,” said Karim Lallani, president of the engineering society at the Waterloo, Ont., university.

For Mr. Lallani and some of Canada's brightest young minds in science, most of whom grew up on computers with Microsoft software, Mr. Gates is a visionary and legend. “I have high goals. I aspire to be even a quarter as successful as him. He's definitely a role model,” Mr. Lallani said.

In strictly monetary terms, that would make the fourth-year engineering student worth $12.75-billion (U.S.) some day, based on the latest calculations of Forbes magazine, which puts Mr. Gates' net worth at $51-billion.

To earn a seat in the audience, students were asked by organizers to submit in writing the reasons they should be selected, and there was no shortage of entries.

“The fact that he started this new era of computers that has swept over the globe is an absolute inspiration to me,” wrote Roger Su, a first-year electrical engineering student and one of 650 to vie for the 130 tickets allocated to the engineering faculty.

In the mathematics department, competition was even fiercer, with more than 1,400 students jostling for 300 tickets. The rules were slightly different, requiring students to submit a question that they wanted to ask. Popular ones included: How will Microsoft respond to innovation from Google Inc., what does Mr. Gates think about locally based Research In Motion Ltd. and why won't the company share the source code in its software with the open source development community?

A few humorous submissions stood out, said Michael Tersigni, president of the mathematics society, who admitted that in the end he pulled the winning names randomly. One student wanted Mr. Gates to weigh in on the long-standing question among comics fanatics of who would win in a fight: Batman or Superman.

Mr. Gates' visit is the only Canadian stop on a three-day tour of six universities “to generate excitement among students about the tremendous opportunities available to them,” a company spokeswoman said. “He will talk about innovation and breakthrough technologies, new opportunities for technology to improve our personal lives and the way we work and collaborate, and why careers in computer science are exciting, rewarding, and vitally important.”


Waterloo is the only Canadian campus on the tour. The university has served as a major recruiting ground for Microsoft for years. But more recently, the Redmond, Wash.-based giant has faced competition for some students' attention. “Google has been coming up strong,” Mr. Tersigni said.

This will be the first trip to Canada in three years for Mr. Gates, who will also mix with selected members of faculty before addressing students for 75 minutes. He is scheduled to meet with the university chancellor, Mike Lazaridis.

Dr. Lazaridis is better known as the inventor of the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device and is co-chief executive officer of RIM. Mr. Gates, who also serves as Microsoft's chief software architect, is increasingly setting the company's sights on RIM and the multibillion-dollar market that it has created.

Mr. Gates will also stop at Columbia, Howard, Princeton and universities of Michigan and Wisconsin.
 
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#6 ·
doady said:
The only reason Bill Gates is as successful as he is is because he stole ideas from Steve Jobs.
Was that he stole them, or he knew how to take these ideas and market them? Those who fall asleep behind the wheel lose out.
 
#10 ·
The geeks on campus were in absolute heaven. Us ES students weren't so excited by his visit though.

Still, it was very nice of Bill to show up considering all the UW students that end up working for him. He's probably bigger than Madonna in this city anyway. I just wish he would have dropped by my Waterloo branch of the Royal Bank. I wouldn't mind even a 'seconds' worth of his wages. It would add up to at least 'a goodbye' to student loans I'd hope.
 
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