Working with Information Technology

By Juha Haataja

This article was originally published in the CSC Annual Report for the year 1997.

I have worked at CSC for almost eight years. When I began in 1990, CSC was a small unit fighting for survival, expanding out of necessity. Now, in 1998, CSC is much stronger and widely needed, but still struggling to grow.

CSC is a unique environment in Finland and perhaps also in the world. About 70 specialists from different disciplines are working together at CSC, all with a common interest in keeping Finnish science internationally competitive. At the same time, ech of these specialists represents different kinds of interests. Some of us are experts when it comes to number crunching, some are scientists with little interest in machines and software.

Working in this kind of group is always full of surprises. CSC is like a continuously evolving organism.

Eight years ago CSC set in motion some trends which are now an integral part of our essence. More scientific experts were hired to work with university customers, we started to publish textbooks on science and engineering topics. Also, the computing and networking infrastructure in Finland was systematically developed to be the best in the world.

Working with computers and software is often frustrating. Fortunately, CSC has several specialists working with operating systems, hardware, and networking. These skill are necessary for using cutting-edge technology such as parallel supercomputers and high-speed networking.

Scientists and engineers would be seriously handicapped if they had to struggle with computers and software. Computers are tools; no more and no less - human creativity is the driving force in science and engineering. Because of the large spectrum of skills at CSC, our scientific experts are able to help both in questions related to science and in problems with using computers. This is one of the greatest strengths of the multi-disciplinary environment at CSC.

Computers often do not behave the way we would like. Sometimes computers are more of an obstacle than a tool. As an example, I have had to learn many operating systems during my career: CP/M, VM/CMS, MVS, VMS, Unix, Mac OS, PC/DOS, PC/Windows...

Of course, some of these skills are more durable than others. Pascal was a good way of learning programming - it helped even with FORTRAN 77. However, of the dozens of programming languages I have become familiar with (Pascal, Fortran, C, APL2, Smalltalk, Prolog, C++, Java etc.), only a few have been really worth the effort. Fortunately, some skills have not been in vain - and learning Fortran 90 was almost a pleasure. In fact, we wrote the first Finnish textbook on Fortran 90 at CSC. This textbook has generated lots of interest: our Fortran 90 course had to be organized three times in February 1998.

I have been involved in training our customers in information technology and numerical methods. In addition, we have published several textbooks on these subjects. CSC also publishes several magazines, which are another way of reaching the Finnish scientific community. Writing articles to these magazines has been a pleasure - writing helps to learn new things, and discover the limits of one's knowledge.

CSC is a place where all kinds of things meet. One of my first tasks at CSC was to organize courses on mathematical software and numerical methods. These were great challenges - but working with enthusiastic and skilled colleagues made the challenge seem smaller than it was. As a result, we not only organized the courses, but also wrote several textbooks on these subjects.

Vectorization, parallel computing, and RISC optimization have also been interesting topics to work with. These skills are needed for optimal performance on high-speed computers. We organize courses on these subjects as well.

I have worked on projects studying cellular automata, Riemann surfaces, Fuchsian groups, large-scale optimization, parallel computing, and cattle breeding. This has taught me new skills and given me a new appreciation for the need for cross-disciplinary teams working together to reach a common target. This is the way to do science. The days of a solitary scientist working alone are long past.