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From: Bundy%edxa@ucl-cs.arpa
Newsgroups: net.lang.prolog
Subject: Shortage of Logic Programmers?
Message-ID: <748@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Jun-84 14:51:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.748
Posted: Wed Jun  6 14:51:39 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Jun-84 02:10:57 EDT
Lines: 29

From:  Bundy HPS (on ERCC DEC-10) 

        I realise there is a shortage of people in the logic
programming area, but I would not have thought that it was much
worse than many other areas of computing, e.g.  AI.  However,
the AI Dept in Edinburgh recently advertised three tenure track
lectureships in:  logic programming, vision and robotics.  The
number of candidates applying in each case was:

vision   6, robotics 3, and logic programming 0!

        Now this might have been:

(a) a statistical freak
(b) a recognition that Edinburgh's reputation is not as strong
    as it used to be during the golden ages of Kowalski, Warren,
    Pereira, Byrd and Bowen
(c) just a general shortage of LP people.

If another note does not bring in some candidates that will be
evidence against (a).  I will let you know.

Against (b) I would have thought our reputation in logic
programming was at least of good as that in vision.  Does anybody
have a feel for whether all the current interest in Prolog is
producing some good postgraduate students.  If not, then we are
failing as a field and ought to do something about it.

-- Alan Bundy