Bumping Into Brilliance: Meeting Nancy Cam-Winget at Cisco Live
One of the most exciting aspects of attending Cisco Live is the serendipitous encounters you can have with some of the brightest minds in the tech industry. This year, I had the privilege of meeting Nancy Cam-Winget, a Cisco Fellow, for the very first time. It was a chance meeting at a demonstration in the World of Solutions showcase, and it turned into a memorable conversation that left me inspired and reflective.
What is a Cisco Fellow?
To fully appreciate the significance of meeting Nancy, it’s essential to understand what it means to be a Cisco Fellow. A Cisco Fellow represents the pinnacle of technical leadership at Cisco. This title is reserved for individuals who have consistently demonstrated exceptional innovation, technical expertise, and influence in the technology landscape. Cisco Fellows shape the future of networking, security, and other critical domains within the industry, often driving advancements that impact millions of users worldwide.
Nancy Cam-Winget’s Achievements
Nancy Cam-Winget is a standout leader in this elite group. Her contributions to Cisco and the broader tech community are nothing short of extraordinary. Over the years, she has driven groundbreaking advancements in network security, helping organizations better protect their digital assets in an increasingly complex threat landscape. From her work on secure access technologies to her influence on industry standards, Nancy has been instrumental in shaping the way Cisco enables secure and efficient connections for businesses globally.
Beyond her technical achievements, Nancy is also a passionate advocate for mentorship and inclusion in technology. She actively shares her knowledge, helping to inspire the next generation of innovators. It’s no exaggeration to say that Nancy’s work has left an indelible mark on both Cisco’s legacy and the industry as a whole. https://blogs.cisco.com/author/ncamwing
A Story of Echoes From the Past
As we chatted, Nancy shared a fascinating story that compared two of today’s most groundbreaking technologies—quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI)—to pivotal moments in the history of computing. Interestingly, she mentioned that this comparison was a perspective she shares with a colleague, underscoring how collaborative innovation often leads to broader insights. Her perspective was both thought-provoking and steeped in historical parallels.
Quantum Computing and Charles Babbage’s Calculating Machine
Nancy began by drawing a parallel between quantum computing and Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. For those unfamiliar, Babbage’s Analytical Engine was a 19th-century mechanical general-purpose computer designed to perform a variety of calculations. Although it was an ambitious concept for its time, the machine was never completed due to financial, technical, and logistical challenges. In hindsight, it was an idea far ahead of its time—a vision that couldn’t be fully realized with the resources and knowledge of the era.
Nancy mused on whether quantum computing might face a similar fate. While quantum computing holds immense promise for solving problems that are intractable for classical computers, skeptics question whether its practical implementation will ever match its theoretical potential. Like Babbage’s invention, quantum computing could either revolutionize technology or remain a concept that simply couldn’t overcome the hurdles of its time.
Artificial Intelligence and ENIAC’s Early Struggles
Nancy also shared an analogy between artificial intelligence and ENIAC, one of the first electronic general-purpose computers developed in the 1940s. While ENIAC was a marvel of engineering and a leap forward for computing, it had its quirks and limitations.
ENIAC was a marvel of its time, but it did face issues with hardware reliability, programming difficulty, and the absence of error handling, all of which could lead to mathematical inaccuracies. Despite this, it was far faster and more accurate than any previous computing method, especially compared to manual or electromechanical calculators.
Nancy likened ENIAC’s early struggles to the challenges AI faces today. While AI has made remarkable strides in areas like language processing and image recognition, it still struggles with fundamental issues such as explainability, bias, and ethical decision-making. Just as ENIAC was eventually refined and surpassed, Nancy suggested that AI’s current limitations might be the growing pains of a technology that will one day mature into something even more transformative.
As someone with a deep appreciation for history, a passion for collecting vintage 8-bit computers, and a fondness for the lessons learned in my high school Computer History class back in the 1980s, I found the parallels Nancy shared between AI and ENIAC, and Quantum Computing and Babbage’s Analytical Engine, absolutely fascinating. These analogies offered a thought-provoking lens to view today’s cutting-edge technologies through the context of computing’s past. While they are not forecasts of the future for AI or Quantum Computing, they provided an incredible, momentary reflection on where we stand with these innovations—balancing immense promise with their current challenges—just as ENIAC and Babbage’s machine did in their respective eras. It was a powerful reminder of how far we’ve come, yet how history continues to echo in the technology we pursue today.
My conversation with Nancy left me pondering the cyclical nature of technological advancement. History has shown us that great ideas often face significant obstacles before they can be realized. Whether it’s quantum computing, AI, or another innovation on the horizon, the echoes of the past remind us to remain both optimistic and cautious. As Nancy so eloquently put it, “Technology is never about perfection from the start; it’s about persistence, collaboration, and vision.”
Mentorship and “Talking with Giants”
After sharing these fascinating historical parallels, Nancy turned to one of her favorite topics: mentorship. She explained how critical mentorship has been in her own journey as an engineer and a Cisco Fellow. Nancy recommended attending a session at Cisco Live called Talking with Giants, which she has spoken at before. This unique session features some of the most accomplished minds in the industry, offering engineers a chance to learn about their journeys and the lessons they’ve gathered along the way.
Nancy emphasized how important it is for engineers—especially those aspiring to achieve the coveted title of Fellow—to attend sessions like this. It’s an invaluable opportunity to see the human stories behind the technical accomplishments and to understand the perseverance, creativity, and collaboration required to reach the pinnacle of technical leadership. “Becoming a Fellow isn’t just about technical expertise,” she said. “It’s about connecting with people, learning from others, and always staying curious.”
Meeting Nancy Cam-Winget at Cisco Live was an unforgettable experience. Her insights into technology’s past and future were not just enlightening—they were a reminder of the boundless possibilities that lie ahead for all of us in the tech community.
It also shows the amazing people you can meet at an amazing conference like Cisco Live.
About the Author
Kevin Cossaboon
A networking profesional located in Northren Virginia, USA. My hobbies are Technology and Photography. Love playing with the latest technology, and will try to post reviews of them. Also love my life long journey of learning to capture light, to trigger emotions, through photography.