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Globalisation, automation and rapidly changing needs mean the future of employment will probably look very different to now. In fact, many current careers won’t exist in the next 10 to 20 years. So, it’s critical that students ask the important question: ‘Will my chosen study path lead to strong job opportunities after graduation and beyond?’

In this series we’re exploring a range of occupations forecast to have strong employment prospects in the future. Some careers in the tech industry are quickly emerging. Plus, there are other existing careers that will also have an important place in the employment opportunities of tomorrow.

When it comes to transformation and innovation, no other career pushes the boundaries more than information technology, otherwise known as IT. Today, we’re looking at the job prospects on offer, as well as the study pathways you can take if you’re looking for a career in IT.

Technology forms the basis of almost everything we do in our daily lives. It gets you from one place to another, feeds you, helps you work and study, and makes your life easier. And behind that technology are the information technology professionals who created it.

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Before embarking on an AI initiative, companies must understand which technologies perform what types of tasks, and the strengths and limitations of each. Rule-based expert systems and robotic process automation, for example, are transparent in how they do their work, but neither is capable of learning and improving. Deep learning, on the other hand, is great at learning from large volumes of labeled data, but it’s almost impossible to understand how it creates the models it does.

This “black box” issue can be problematic in highly regulated industries such as financial services, in which regulators insist on knowing why decisions are made in a certain way.

We encountered several organizations that wasted time and money pursuing the wrong technology for the job at hand. But if they’re armed with a good understanding of the different technologies, companies are better positioned to determine which might best address specific needs, which vendors to work with, and how quickly a system can be implemented. Acquiring this understanding requires ongoing research and education, usually within IT or an innovation group.

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Computer engineering is a driving force behind innovation and technologies that are changing the world, pushing computing power and capabilities to the edge. Bridging hardware (e.g. microprocessors, tablets) and software, computer engineering has implications across many industries, ranging from technology to healthcare, green energy to aeronautics. The following guide serves as a high-level overview of the computer engineering profession, including insight into various career paths, emerging industries, employment opportunities, companies that are hiring computer engineers, skills and knowledge categories, as well as tips for preparing for computer engineering careers.

Computer engineering is an interdisciplinary field of study, one that combines electrical engineering and computer science disciplines into a specialized professional area of practice. Smaller; fastest; cheaper. Smarter; flexible; powerful. In short, computer engineers make computers and computing systems better.

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Consider, for example, the history of the Intel processor. Introduced in 1971, the Intel 4004 processor had 2,300 transistors and produced clock speed of 108 KHz (108,000 cycles per second). Compare the performance of the 4004 microprocessor to Penryn, the microprocessor Intel introduced in 2007: with 820,000 transistors and a clock speed greater than 3 GHz, Penryn operates at approximately 3 billion cycles per second. That’s an improvement of 27,777% – in 36 years. This type of computing power and performance improvement has spearheaded the information revolution – driving transformative developments in computers, video, imaging, 3D content, power management, animation, home automation, auto manufacturing, mobile devices and phones, communication, and more.

The Defense Department has followed through on its promise to a federal judge to quickly reopen bidding on one of the contested portions of its JEDI Cloud contract. But the latest chapter in the JEDI saga is already proving to be just as acrimonious as the past two-and-a-half years have been.

This week, Amazon Web Services filed a brand new protest, challenging the way DoD has handled that very reconsideration process. AWS alleges the new revisions the department made to its JEDI solicitation were “ambiguous,” and make it impossible for the company to accurately price its revised bid.

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“AWS repeatedly sought clarity from the DoD around ambiguous aspects of the amended solicitation and the DoD refused to answer our questions,” the company said in a statement Thursday. “We simply want to ensure a common understanding of the DoD’s requirements and eliminate ambiguity that could impact a fair evaluation.”

Amazon issued its latest complaint in the form of an agency-level protest — essentially a request for the Defense Department to reconsider its own actions. The details of those types of protests are not publicly available.

But the company said it had repeatedly pressed Defense contracting officials to clarify their amended JEDI solicitation, and that the department refused to provide a meaningful response.

As part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, or NCSAM, the National Cyber Security Alliance is advising all computer users to "Protect IT" by taking precautions such as updating to the latest security software, Web browser and operating system.

The nonprofit public-private partnership, which works with the Department of Homeland Security as well as private sector sponsors, including Symantec and Microsoft, advised computer users on ways to protect their personal data and information, as well as how to use WiFi safely.

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Protect IT is the third pillar of the NCSA"s overarching message around this month"s awareness program, which focuses on key areas related to citizen privacy, consumer devices and e-commerce security. Outreach programs such as this one call upon consumers as well as businesses to take responsibility for protecting electronic data.

October 2019 is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month #BeCyberSmart

"National Cyber Security Awareness month is an opportunity to advocate for informed policies and business models," said Jim Purtilo, associate professor in the computer science department at the University of Maryland.

"While it is always in order for citizens to take responsibility for their own safety, that task sure would be easier if businesses and agencies shouldered a fair share of the liability for tech tragedies," he told TechNewsWorld.