Thinking about computing and doing good for humanity
One of the things I love about being at CMU is the ability to see talks given by the professors here (and even sit in on some of their classes). One of the favorite lecturers in the CS department is Luis von Ahn. Luis developed an entirely new field of computer science called “human computation”. Here is a great video of Luis at the CCC event at the library of congress talking about how his research has changed the world.
I think this is a great thing to show students as it really starts to give them a window into the idea that computer science is not all about the programming - yes there is programming involved in a lot - but it is so much more than that.