Professor Gene Kwatny has been part of Temple University’s Computer Information Science department since 1979, and his journey to get there is not what you’d expect. Starting in medicine before pivoting to CIS, he taught himself to program when computers had just 4 kilobytes of memory. No bootcamp. No YouTube tutorials. Just curiosity and a problem that needed solving.
And if you need proof of just how long he’s been around? He’s been at Temple long enough to remember things that no longer exist — and to still be waiting, like the rest of us, on that pizza place at Morgan Hall.
In this episode, Professor Kwatny takes us through nearly five decades of computing history — from the microprocessor revolution to the rise of the internet, the web, and today’s GPU-powered AI systems — and shares what all of that change has taught him about what actually matters in this field.
Here’s what we get into:
- Why curiosity and persistence matter more than any grade or course you’ll take
- How to use AI as a learning tool without letting it do your thinking for you
- Why fundamentals aren’t just foundational — they’re what let you adapt when everything changes again
- How Temple was an early leader in internet adoption, and where its strengths in AI and networking come from
- His vision for a future College of Computing at Temple — and why he thinks the field has outgrown its current home
Whether you’re a CS student trying to figure out how to navigate the AI era, or just curious about what this field looked like before Stack Overflow existed, this conversation has something for you.
The takeaway? Stay curious. Don’t rush the fundamentals. And don’t let go of a hard problem until you actually understand it.
As Professor Kwatny transitions into a well-earned retirement, we want to take a moment to thank him for his decades of dedication to Temple’s students, faculty, and the broader computing community — the department is undeniably better for having had him.
