Spotlight on Wendy Hall
e-interviewed by Bettina Bair, ACMW:CIS Editor
Wendy Hall, the latest ACM president, is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton in southern England. She was appointed the University’s first female professor of engineering in 1994. She then served as Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007. She is one of the first computer scientists to undertake serious research in multimedia and hypermedia, and she has been at the forefront ever since. Hall is the founding director of the Web Science Research Initiative, with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Daniel Weitzner.
Bettina: How and why did you go into a computing career?
Wendy: My PhD is in pure mathematics. I loved maths at school and was keen to read it at university. I wanted to stay in higher education after I got my PhD, but there were few permanent lectureships in pure maths at the time. So I got temporary jobs lecturing maths to engineers, and then maths to trainee teachers. While I was at the teacher training college, the first personal computers arrived on the scene, and I was asked to set up a course in BASIC programming at the college. They assumed, as a mathematician, that I would know something about computers, even though I had hated the computing course at University. Anyway, I took a Commodore PET home for the summer holidays, taught myself BASIC, and really never looked back. I became so interested in how computers could be used in education that I took a part-time MSc in Computer Science to learn the subject properly. I then applied for and got a lectureship in Computer Science at Southampton (in 1984), and the rest, as they say, is history. I was inspired to become a computer scientist because of the potential of computers to help people get access to information, particularly multimedia information. My group was one of the first in the UK to start serious research in hypermedia and multimedia systems – something that was alien to computer science at the time. I never dreamt those career choices would lead me to where I am now.
Bettina: What’s going on with multimedia and hypermedia these days that’s new and promising?
Wendy: My answer to that has to be the semantic web, or the linked data web, as it is increasingly being called these days, since this better explains the type of web that semantic web technologies will enable us to build. Considering that the Web was designed as a hypertext system, it is a remarkably difficult environment in which to build and maintain richly linked hypermedia applications (everyone knows how hard it is to design and maintain good websites!). The linked data web is set to change this, as it will enable us to more easily define relationships between objects on the Web as described by the metadata attributed to them. This is all beginning to sound too much like a research paper, but this is where the excitement is for me in hypermedia and multimedia research. I’m very interested in the concept of personal digital memories, which requires the development of a lot of new hypermedia and multimedia research technologies, including the use of the linked data web. I am interested in learning more about how our brains store and retrieve memories and comparing and contrasting this with the way we handle digital memories. I am also one of the founding directors of the Web Science Research Initiative, which is taking a whole new look at how web-scale systems develop and the interaction between computer science and social science.
Bettina: With everything going on in your life, what are you doing for fun? And how do you find time for it?
Wendy: I have always lived life to the full- I work hard and play hard. I’m lucky that I don’t need much sleep and seem to have boundless energy (I’m not a good role model for achieving a healthy work-life balance). I have a very supportive husband, and we share a lot of interests in common. We plan social events and holidays well in advance and stick to our plans so that we can fit the fun stuff in. I enjoy my work and the people I work with. I tend not to work with people whose company I don’t enjoy or who take life or themselves too seriously! Someone once told me, “Something is only work if you don’t enjoy it”. It is so true. I love travelling, doing new things, and meeting new people – even if it gets very tiring at times. So although I’m working a lot of the time, I’m having fun most of the time too.
‘Always aim high. Never accept no as an answer unless it’s the right answer… Find a good mentor…Focus, focus, focus… And finally, always make it fun when you can!’
Bettina: You said that ACM should ‘take the lead in increasing diversity in all aspects of our field. ‘ What does that mean to you?
Wendy: It means the ACM has to make diversity issues a high priority in every aspect of what it does. That means every time we develop a new policy, or plan a new activity or campaign, we have to consider it from the point of view of diversity. For example, if we establish a new journal, we must consider the membership of the editorial board from the point of view of diversity as well as research expertise. But this doesn’t just mean gender – everything we do must be representative of all our members, and it needs to be part of the culture of the organisation to think in this way. And it doesn’t mean positive discrimination – it means ensuring the decision makers at every level in the organisation are aware of diversity issues. We mustn’t make this a heavyweight, top-down issue – volunteers are hard to find, and we mustn’t make being a volunteer any more onerous than it is now. It’s all about changing the culture of the organisation, and it will take time, but I think the establishment of the new ACM-W Council and the ACM’s strategic focus on internationalisation are major steps forward.
Bettina: Where do you see ACM-W in five years? What kind of organization will it be? And with what mission /goals?
Wendy: The ACM-W Council has a voice on the ACM Executive, and the Council will be the body that drives forward the ACM’s diversity policy, particularly with regard to gender. In addition to continuing to manage all the activities that ACM-W currently runs, it will also manage the ACM’s relationship with external bodies such as NCWIT, CRA-W, and ABI and encourage the other Boards and Committees within the ACM to develop diversity policies. It’s very exciting.
Bettina: What advice do you have for young women in computing, on overcoming obstacles like culture and distance to become leaders?
Wendy: I have three pieces of advice, no four actually. Always aim high. Never accept no as an answer unless it’s the right answer. Find yourself a good mentor – someone you can relate to easily, who has been there before you and can give you sound, objective advice. Focus, focus, focus – don’t try to do too many different things – try to make everything you do fit your core strategic values. And finally (so that’s five pieces of advice in the end) – always make it fun when you can!