Carlo Prelz
I received my degree in Architecture from the Polytechnic of Milan,
Italy, long ago, when Architects were not supposed to make use of
computers.
I have been writing software since when I was at high school. That was
the time of the first computers that individuals could afford to buy.
After my degree, I had the rare chance of attending a one-year course
in computer graphics at my university, a course that would not be
further replicated. The course focused on graphics algorithms, but
during that year I also learned to work with a 'serious' programming
language. It has been a wonderful year. The course made me realize
that I was much better at writing code than at building houses.
During the one-year compulsory military service I was in charge of
installing the first PC in the administrative office of a military
airport, which was at that time still paper-based. That was the
beginning of my career in programming.
For the following decade I have been busy writing code for the
collection and production of television audience data. Along the
years, I helped set up half a dozen audience measurement operations,
including the development of a new TV audience measurement system in
Portugal.
Later, again by chance, I found myself busy with writing code for
Dutch multimedia artists. This has been a period of great creativity:
lots and lots of code were written for entirely different settings. To
my great surprise, this period lasted many years: it paid my bills
until the great crisis hit the world. The Netherlands were not
generous with media artists anymore.
It is again by pure chance that I found a new home here at the
University of Bern. When it comes to software, the needs of university
researchers are not as wildly varied as those of media artists, but,
as it happens, researchers can surprise.