Scholastic Network "Live Chat with Multimedia Engineer," Donna Auguste

March 6, 1996

Scholastic Network: We are pleased to welcome Donna Auguste, Senior Director of Multimedia Service Engineering and Development at US West Advanced Technologies. Donna is here to answer your questions about her career and the special challenges facing an African-American woman breaking into the computer field. Hello Donna, thank you for joining us today!

Donna Auguste: Hi. Thanks for inviting me to chat. I'm looking forward to a great discussion and questions.

Question: Do you have to major in computer science to work in the field? What other kinds of courses would be valuable to someone interested in working in computer science?

Donna Auguste: That's a good question. People come to computer science from lots of different backgrounds. Some study electrical engineering, computer science, other areas of engineering, etc. And some folks study graphics arts, natural sciences like biology and medicine.

Question: What is the most amazing technological advance you've seen since you began to work in the field?

Donna Auguste: Miniaturization is pretty amazing. But I think the most amazing is how quickly computers have become accepted and used by everyone, not just "techies."

Question: What is the next great advance we can expect to see soon?

Donna Auguste: Oh, there are lots of great things cooking. :-) Examples include household computers embedded in everything from light switches to stoves, mobile computing that ties together internet access and wireless/cellular phone technology and paging technology ... oh, there are lots of good things coming up.

Question: What is the neatest thing about your work?

Donna Auguste: The neatest thing is working with fun people and inventing cool technology.

Question: What are some important classes to take in order to major in computer science in college?

Donna Auguste: Classes that help teach analytical thinking and problem-solving are good. That would include math and science. I also think that music and art are important classes in preparation for Computer Science because those classes teach creative skills which are very valuable for inventors and entrepreneurs.

Question: How does so much information fit on a small disk?

Donna Auguste: There are two important characteristics for fitting information on a small disk. One is the format or layout of the data, designed to organize the data to fit into a small space. The other is compression, which is really important when handling multimedia data such as video and sound clips. Compressing the information means using a special code to represent lots of data but in only a few characters.

Question: What's your opinion of the new, inexpensive computers that will attach to TV cables to navigate the Web?

Donna Auguste: Definitely cool technology. Lots of interesting inventions will surface with those devices, which are called "set top boxes." The set top box plugs into a cable line or a special phone line and also plugs into the TV set. The set top box is a "decoder" for the multimedia data that travels on the cable line or phone line. Because multimedia data is encoded (as I described earlier) a decoder in the set top is necessary so that the TV can display the images, graphics, sounds, text, colors, etc. If you think about a MTV-type video that is digitized (or computerized) traveling across the wire, the set top box decodes the video and displays it on a computer or on a TV.

Question: How do you use a computer to identify handwriting? Do police departments use them for this? Godfrey, Timmons Elem., S'port, La.

Donna Auguste: There are several ways to identify handwriting using a computer. Most involve having information from lots (like thousands) of samples that the computer interprets to compare with the handwriting that is to be recognized. The computer knows the many ways that each letter can be written, compares the samples, and then compares the handwriting it's trying to recognize. Some computers recognize letter-by-letter and some recognize entire words at once. Some can handle printed letters and some can handle cursive letters. Police departments may use some computers to analyze handwriting, but it's different because they are working with handwriting on paper and the computers like Newton are working with handwriting on a screen. Newton's handwriting recognition is using "digital ink" instead of ink on paper.

Question: Did you encounter disapproving attitudes when you decided to make computer technology your career? If so, was it gender- or racially- based? Was it from your peers or teachers? How did you overcome this?

Donna Auguste: Yes, I encountered disapproval. But I also had approval and support. When I was about nine years old, I started getting interested in taking things apart and putting things together. I took apart a flashlight to see how the batteries and light bulb worked together. I took apart our doorbell and then I couldn't get it back together :-).I put together parts to make a radio. My mother and sisters were encouraging. They knew I was a nerd and that was ok with them. At school, over a few years, I got disapproval from some teachers who thought girls shouldn't be interested in science. Some kids in classes teased me because I got A's in math. But, none of that mattered too much. I was passionate about my interests and just ignored anything that didn't help me get where I was headed. In college, some professors were vocal about not wanting African-American students in the engineering department. But, we stayed, we studied hard, we did well, and now we are engineers!

Question: How many computers and what type of computers do you work with each day?

Donna Auguste: I use lots of different computers. Macintosh, PC-compatibles, Unix systems, new computers that my team is developing. And, of course, my handy Newton PDA is always nearby.

Question: Many jobs have been lost because so many companies have become computerized. Do you see this trend continuing? What kind of training should everyone have in order to protect themselves against obsolescence?

Donna Auguste: Always continuing to learn new technology is valuable for everyone, in any field and in any profession. But my strongest recommendation is to pursue what you're most passionate about and invest your time and energy in developing that passion. It's fun, it's what you like, and it's probably what you'll excel at. Then, because you're involved in this area all of the time, you'll be on the cutting edge. You'll be creating the new developments instead of finding yourself replaced by people or technology that creates the new developments for you.

Question: Computers are still very expensive for many individuals. What can be done from a technological point of view to bring the prices down?

Donna Auguste: One thing that can be done is to ask local companies to donate computers to community centers and schools. The companies sometimes have extra computers or older computers they can donate if someone just asks them and arranges a place for young people to have access to the computers. Another thing -- you might laugh, but it's true -- is that you can build your own computer! Getting parts from old computers or even buying parts from junk stores is much cheaper than buying a new computer. And you can learn so much by putting a computer together from parts. If you're interested in building a computer, you can get a boo>

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