T. Russell Shields '59, the 2013 Alumni Award winner, came to speak virtually at an All-School event on May 19 in the Faculty Room. In attendance were computer science students, math and computer science faculty, other interested members of the community, and even some of Mr. Shields's classmates via Zoom.

Mr. Shields, who has spent his entire career working in a variety of technology-related fields, including data management, cellular telephone billing, mapping database and routing tools, and wireless voice and data communications, is currently the president of RoadDB. The company provides data support to automated driving systems, processing road images into the precise information needed by those algorithms.

In addition to reflecting on the tremendous advances he has seen in the last half-century, Mr. Shields speculated on several areas of promising new development in the near and relatively near future. In particular, he highlighted advances in medical technology, which he said would be able to better predict and diagnose possible conditions before they become health problems.

After a short set of prepared remarks, Mr. Shields took questions from the audience covering a variety of technology-related issues.