Computers play an integral role in our lives today.
Their importance will only increase in the future. Computer scientists are now an essential part of our workforce, serving society by making computers do useful work. There is a major need for new computer science graduates in the next decade. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics' projections estimate that computer and data processing services will have the fastest employment growth from 1996 to 2006, increasing from 1,208,000 to 2,509,000 employees during those 10 years. A National Research Council spokesperson reported recently that there are 100,000 open positions in the computer field in the United States, and that only about 25,000 computer scientist bachelor degrees are awarded from U.S. colleges and universities each year Salaries for computer scientists have traditionally been high.