Washington University President Dr Robert Jones He wants to expand access to computer science for undergraduates and create new public-private partnerships to tackle society’s big challenges — and he has a clear idea of how to make that happen.
More than 100 days into his tenure as UW’s 34th president, Jones is also working to dispel two persistent myths: that UW’s Paul G. Allen School “New UW President” of Computer Science and Engineering is nearly impossible to get into, and that AI is taking everyone’s jobs.
New UW President Robert Jones
This fall, the Allen School — a top tech program nationally — accepted 37% of applicants directly from Washington state high schools, while out-of-state admissions accounted “New UW President” for just 4%. “We actually accept a lot more students “New UW President” than the general public believes,” Jones said in an interview with GeekWire this week.
AI as Job Apocalypse? “It’s an overwhelming fear,” Jones said. AI is a “critically important tool to have in your toolbox to be more effective in the future.”
Drawing on his experience leading the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Jones wants to give the UW’s 45,000 undergraduates access to computer science courses — even if they’re in unrelated degree programs.
The concept is modeled on groundbreaking “CS + X” The initiative he helped expand during his past presidency in Illinois. The program has developed technology-related studies into 17 degree programs, including advertising, astronomy, economics, music, philosophy and physics.
In Illinois, CS + X was launched in crop science more than a decade ago because agricultural technology was and still is one of the fastest growing sectors in the state. Jones himself began his career as a professor of plant physiology and became an international authority in the field.
“AI is an amazing tool, and we’re here to make sure our students are getting as comprehensive an education as possible,” Jones said. A graduate’s knowledge of computer “New UW President” science and artificial intelligence makes them “much more employable” outside of their focus areas.
A $10 million gift from Microsoft pioneer Charles Simoni and his wife Lisa Simoni, announced Tuesday, will help integrate AI into teaching and research across the university through the newly formed AI@UW initiative.
AI@UW, which includes a new vice provost for artificial intelligence position, will help UW maintain its “strategic advantage” as an AI leader, Jones said. It is also an example of the kind of public-private collaboration he wants to build.
“Radical Partnership”
Jones envisions expanding what he calls “radical partnerships”—building diverse alliances across geographies, institutions, and sectors to tackle problems “that are too big for any one entity to solve alone.”
New UW President Robert Jones
Collaborations can pool both expertise and funding. The university faces a difficult financial landscape, as does Washington state Revenue forecast Continues to weaken, reducing already strained budgets. Add to that ongoing concerns about funding cuts to federal research programs that the UW relies heavily on.
Jones points to the university’s long-running WWAMI program, which serves medical students from Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho who earn their degrees at the UW and return to practice medicine in their communities, as a prime example of the radical partnership approach.
I’ve done about three or four of these in the last 10 years,” he said, “and they’re an amazing way to bring people together and think about research, in a much more collaborative, much more impactful way than we thought.
New UW President Robert Jones
The technique is particularly suited to AI, quantum computing or other grand technological challenges, he said. Jones was involved in a partnership with the University of Chicago for quantum science research at Illinois and a human biology collaboration with the Chan Zuckerberg BioHub Chicago.
In future collaborations in his new role, Jones is eager to work “seamlessly” with the region’s tech sector, leveraging the fact that the UW has helped build an ecosystem that includes giants like Amazon and Microsoft, as well as hundreds of smaller companies.
Given Dr. Jones’ work in building Quantum Park in Chicago, I have no doubt we’ll see the UW play an integral role in growing the ecosystem,” said Laura Ruderman, CEO of TechAlliance, who also called the UW “vital” to the state’s innovation economy.
New UW President Robert Jones
More than 110 UW spinoffs currently operate in the state, according to the university’s CoMotion program, which supports entrepreneurship.
“What we need to do more is generate funding and create the next big ideas that are going to be transformative,” Jones said, “not just for Washington state, but for the country and the world.”