Jeannette Wing’s grand vision is for everyone in the world to use computational thinking. In the latest talk in our Big Thinkers speaker series, Wing shared her vision with an engaged crowd at Yahoo Labs. Currently on leave from Carnegie Mellon University, Wing is assistant director for Computer & Information Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation (NSF). In her talk, entitled “Computational Thinking and Thinking about Computing,” Wing advocated computational thinking as a basic skill that should be taught alongside reading, writing, and arithmetic. Her passion for the subject was evident and contagious in her energy and enthusiasm. Wing defined computing as the “automation of our abstractions.” Computational thinking then becomes selecting the right abstraction and the right computational framework to address a problem. According to Wing, computational thinking often involves reformulating a seemingly difficult task into one we know how to solve. It has the potential to transform how humans solve problems, and is already making an impact beyond science and engineering. For example, a shotgun algorithm was used to expedite the sequencing of the human genome. In economics, automated mechanism design underlies electronic commerce such as online advertising placements and online auctions. In the social sciences, statistical machine learning is used for recommendation and reputation services. Robotic surgery, virtual colonoscopies, and electronic health records are examples of computational thinking in medicine. In law, inventions are being created by computers – can you patent those inventions? Wing gave an example of how an algorithm on how bristles should be angled and overlapped on a toothbrush was patented. Computational techniques that find patterns in massive sets of data like digital libraries are critical in the humanities – every artifact in every museum is being digitized and can create experiences such as archaeological digs in a virtual world. Wing declared that computational thinking should be added to the school curriculum starting in kindergarten because of its importance in so many disciplines. “How do we get students prepared for undergrad computational thinking?” she asked. She suggests adding computer science as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subject for K-12 students. “Let’s add computational thinking to every child’s analytical ability,” said Wing. Overall, Wing sees a positive future, getting computational thinking into the mainstream. She talked passionately about related initiatives at the NSF. The NSF funds some fundamental research driven by deep scientific questions – for example, “what is computable?” – and also by societal grand challenges, such as climate change, energy, environment and health care. Wing concluded her talk on a reflective note. She shared her list of deep questions in computing – questions such as “what is computable?” and “what is information?” – with the hope of encouraging everyone to think about the scientific drivers in the field of computing.