Credit: Rachid Guerraoui
Computer scientist Rachid Guerraoui, born in Morocco, began postgraduate studies in France in the mid-1980s without ever having seen a computer. He went on to become a pioneer in designing modern data centres. Today, he’s professor at the School of Computer and Communications Sciences at EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and director of its Distributed Computing Laboratory.
In 2024, Guerraoui won the Dahl-Nygaard Award for research into object-orientation, a programming paradigm based on the concept of objects containing data and performing actions. In June 2025, he will receive the inaugural Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)’s Luiz André Barroso Award. It recognises fundamental advances made by computer science researchers from historically underrepresented communities, and their role in advancing the field in their countries.
He hosts young researchers at EPFL through its “Excellence in Africa” programme and is a driving force and current advisory board chair of the University Mohammed 6 Polytechnical (UM6P) College of Computing in Morocco, which is expecting its first graduates by 2026.
Did love for mathematics draw you into computer science?
Yes, absolutely. After high school in Morocco, my uncle, an engineer, suggested that I put my maths background into practice in computer science to enhance my career prospects. The only problem was that I, unlike my fellow students in France, had never seen a computer.
But you soon caught up?
In 1989 I obtained master’s degrees in both computer engineering and computer science, followed by a PhD in 1992 from the Université d’Orsay. I did further research at the HP Labs and MIT before joining EPFL in 1999. I’ve used my mathematical abilities to write algorithms, which is essentially the mathematics behind computer science, to do theoretical and practical work on reliable distributed computing — a field of computer science in which a computational problem is divided into many tasks, each of which is solved by one or more computers that communicate and coordinate with each other over a network to achieve a common goal. Distribution networks are used in internet-scale architecture, modern cryptocurrency, and cloud computing. I still believe that you need a love for mathematics if you want to excel in computer science.
Is a solid grounding in mathematics and computer science still important in the age of AI-generated coding?
People constantly talk about advances in AI, forgetting that it is fundamentally computer science. And maths is at the heart of it. I think if children are exposed to computers when they are too young, they could become too lazy to learn the intricacies behind them. At EPFL, for instance, first-year students study algorithms without touching a computer, to encourage them to really understand what’s going on behind LLMs, ChatGTP or Bitcoin. Without an understanding of the mathematical principles, the interfaces will confuse them, and they will not be able to criticise programs. I like ACM’s continued support of hardcore theoretical conferences, because computer science is first about theory and principles, then about applications and technologies.
How have opportunities in computer science changed since you were a student?
I often tell my students that the digital or computer revolution is so much cheaper than the industrial revolution, which needed oil, iron, etc. When I studied, computers were extremely expensive and only affordable to a few. Today, everyone has a small computing facility in their mobile phones. Anyone can now do computer science, build applications and advance the field if they apply their brainpower. Big data centres exist in African countries like South Africa, Morocco and Egypt. A lack of infrastructure is no longer an excuse. The challenge, however, remains to educate and interest young people in a career in computer science.
You started the annual Netys Conference in Morocco to give African computing researchers who find it difficult to travel overseas because of visa and financial issues the opportunity to rub shoulders with international experts. What is your take on visa restrictions?
It is humiliating and degrading. Trying to place students in internships across the world is often a nightmare. They receive placements and invitations after successful online interviews, but then struggle to obtain visas. Some can never broaden their horizons. I hope, in future, there will be enough big companies in Africa willing to host them, which will make travelling arrangements easier.
Describe your dream for computer science in Africa.
There shall be Silicon Valleys in Morocco, Nigeria and other African countries with ample opportunities for a new generation to be happy and proud to work in and set up their companies – without feeling the need to relocate or travel elsewhere to study and work. In education, we should strive for more universities such as UM6P that provide the same level of education as Ivy League institutions such as MIT and Stanford. These should deliver top notch students worth the same pay as someone from MIT, not a so-called ‘African AI’ or ‘African education’. It is simple: there is good education and bad education, good mathematics and bad mathematics. All kids should receive the same level of education, because all kids have the same brains.
