Wendy Hall

Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton, England

Most Important Technology of the Last 40 Years:

The Web.

Most Important Technology for the Coming Decade:

Wireless embedded computing.

Technology That has Evolved in a Surprising Way:

The Web again. When I saw Tim Berners-Lee demonstrate it in 1991, I saw an interesting system, but not what it was going to do—and honestly, I'm not sure he knew either.

"I'm fascinated by how computer scientists can learn from neuroscientists and vice versa. We're talking about building increasingly complex adaptive systems that need to evolve. We have models throughout nature for this. Neuroscientists understand bits of what goes on in the brain, but not how memory works. They know where memory is stored, but not how the brain lays down and recalls those memories. In computing we store loads and loads of information, and we write routines that will get that information back again. Add the dimension that we can video 70 years of someone's life and then, given the way the technology is advancing, store that information on a grain of sand. It's not just about recording one's life, but about helping people with memory problems and understanding better how the brain actually works."