Reporter: Given the broad scope of many CS/MIS programs at leading universities around the United States, what do you believe are the essential disciplines students should learn to be successful in today’s global environment?

Ballmer: So much of the key work happening today is around distributed web services—working with data and services that are distributed across locations. If CS/MIS students want to have an active role in that space, they need to be learning about databases and networking. Hopefully somewhere in their coursework in those areas they will also get a solid background in XML. An absolute necessity is to learn basic principles of building trustworthy systems-such as how to write secure code, and how to model potential attacks on a system so that you can anticipate them and build in resistance to those attacks. This is an area where we are actively partnering with leading computer science programs to create new and updated courses that do a good job of teaching this. User interface design is another area that is super important. As computers have made their way into the hands of a more diverse population, and form factors continue to evolve, designing user interfaces that deliver a great experience for customers has become more challenging. It’s truly interdisciplinary; it requires not only programmers, but also graphic designers, writers, usability experts, domain area experts, and often people with backgrounds in psychology, anthropology, ethnography, sociology, and other areas within the social sciences. As computing becomes an increasingly integral part of all the sciences and many social sciences, we’re seeing that students in those disciplines are also finding great value in taking computer classes. Cornell, for example, even goes as far as to embrace computer science classes as part of the core degree programs in other sciences. That’s a huge change, but one that shines light on the huge potential of computing to change the way we work and live—for the better.