Top US computer scientist puts chips on Chinese undergraduates

Renowned computer scientist John Hopcroft is helping improve the quality of undergraduate education in China.

The 79-year-old US citizen earned a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1964 and went on to win the Turing Award, the highest distinction in computer science, in 1986 with Robert Tarjan, another US computer scientist, "for fundamental achievements in the design and analysis of algorithms and data structures".

Hopcroft has now shifted his focus to education, and is endeavoring to advance reform of China's education system to better develop computer science talent, with an emphasis on undergraduate education.