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From: thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: More on what should be taught
Message-ID: <1225@utah-gr.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Oct-84 19:27:27 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-gr.1225
Posted: Sun Oct 28 19:27:27 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Oct-84 06:00:49 EST
References: <405@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas)
Organization: Univ of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 31
Summary: 


There is a very interesting comment on Computer Science education in the
latest CACM.  The editorial (by Denning) is based on discussion at the
Snowbird 84 meeting (of chairmen of PhD granting CS departments).  The
meat of it is summed up in a single sentence:
	"Computer science stands alone among science and engineering
	disciplines: Our curriculum has the technology in the core
	courses and the science in the electives!"

Most CS departments have, as their core curriculum, programming
courses.  The courses teaching the fundamental ideas underlying what we
call Computer Science are generally electives.  If, on the other hand,
you look at a field such as Electrical Engineering (or Chemistry, or
Physics, or ...), you find that the fundamental ideas are taught in the
core courses, usually with an associated lab which teaches the
"technology" of the discipline.

Denning concludes:
	"... that computer scientists have no clear picture of the
	nature of their own field, which leads those from other 
	disciplines to confused perceptions about us.  We are projecting
	an illusion that we are mostly technicians and that our field
	has nowhere the same intellectual dept as the physical sciences
	or engineering..."

I would be interested in seeing further discussion of his ideas (set
forth "in full" in the editorial) on the net.  I do have an ulterior
motive - I am on our department's curriculum committee, and we are
trying to do a major revision of the undergraduate curriculum this
year.

=Spencer