Students in Introduction to Programming started off their Wednesday discussion section with the usual exam review, but with a knock at the door, Microsoft chairman and CEO Bill Gates stepped into the room to give a surprise guest lecture.
Gates was met with awe from the class of 14 as he lectured about the future of the software industry, which was followed by a question-and-answer session from the students.
The surprise visit was orchestrated by mtvU's popular \Stand In"" series, where celebrities make surprise visits to college classrooms and stand in to teach.
""We've done a couple of these, and every time the students are blown away,"" said Louisa Harris, communications representative of MTV.
Gates, who is currently on a tour visiting leading IT and engineering colleges in North America, lectured to the class on the future of the software industry. He outlined the future software technologies in the classroom, such as electronic tablets to replace notebooks, downloadable textbooks, and software-driven wristwatches.
""I've been given a chance to talk to those early in their college career... about the opportunities,"" Gates said. Gates stated that the future of computer science majors lies mostly in the software design field.
The students expressed shock at watching Gates enter their classroom. ""It was pretty amazing to me ... I had no idea,"" UW-Madison sophomore Shane Achterberg said.
""I'm impressed, I know it will be a great story to tell my friends that Bill Gates guest-lectured today,"" UW-Madison sophomore David Stiennon added. ""I am a fan of Bill Gates as an icon in the computer revolution.""
""The hardest was keeping it a secret from everyone,"" said computer science graduate student Aneesh Karve, the discussion section instructor and one of the few who was in on the surprise. ""This man has a tremendous grasp on the future of technology.""
The mtvU segment will air on the mtvU channel and will be available online at mtvU.com starting Oct. 25th.
Two hundred UW-Madison computer science students had the opportunity to hear Microsoft CEO Bill Gates lecture on the relevance of science technology Wednesday afternoon in Weeks Hall.
Having toured five schools last year and with plans to visit six more schools this year, Gates' goal is to visit the top 20 computer science schools in the United States.
""Software is the field to be in,"" Gates said. ""This is a field where we need new thinking and that's why it's so fantastic for us to bring in new generations of computer scientists.""
However, students have showed concern about the availability of software engineering jobs in their futures, or even competing against worldwide employees.
""The best computer scientists are here in the United States and that's because of the strength of universities like Wisconsin,"" Gates said. ""The people being educated here are not going to have any problem finding high-paying, super-interesting, super-high impact jobs in software.""
Gates introduced and demonstrated the new Xbox 360, which will be out in November. He played a video game to show the richness in detail and also demonstrated how music from an iPod and photos from a digital camera can be hooked up to the Xbox and projected through the television.
""To get to hear the most wealthy man in America and one CEO of probably the most dominant company ever seemed like an opportunity I couldn't pass up,"" said UW-Madison sophomore Eric Phillippi, who got a ticket from his biology professor. ""I could tell he could easily talk way over everyone else's heads, but he brought everything down to a level where it was easy to follow and it was interesting.""
Gates stressed the worldwide impact of computer science. ""I can't imagine anything that's as awarding or deep as software development,"" he said.
