Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!amdcad!lll-crg!seismo!rochester!gardner From: gardner@rochester.UUCP Newsgroups: net.cse Subject: Re: Re: Value of CS degree Message-ID: <15863@rochester.UUCP> Date: Wed, 5-Mar-86 12:19:15 EST Article-I.D.: rocheste.15863 Posted: Wed Mar 5 12:19:15 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 7-Mar-86 08:13:57 EST Sender: gardner@rochester.UUCP Organization: U of Rochester, CS Dept., Rochester, NY Lines: 64 From: Paul Gardner >From: aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP > Just a comment about EEs vs. CSs: > > I was one of the first EEs at McGill to start taking "Honours" Computer > Science courses. The School of Computer Science, which was very theoretical, > discouraged me from taking their courses because I didn't have the necessary > math background. I think they underestimated how much math an EE takes. > The "Honours" Computer Science courses were jokes. > > The next year an "advanced" computer science class in filesystems and > databases was opened up for the first time to engineers. It was taught by > a visiting European professor, very theoretical, very mathematical. On > the first in-class test, the marks distribution was bimodal: CSs around > 30%, EEs around 80%. Same thing in a Discrete Math course - the CS students > complained that they were being asked to solve new problems that they couldn't > just look up in the literature. > > By the time I left school, the School of Computer Science had once again > started providing special courses "adapted to the needs of engineers" > taught by second-rate professors and teaching assistants. Just a comment about CSs vs. EEs: CS people are not all "systems" people. It seems to me that EE types have an easy time with systems because it's the closest thing in computer science to the machine level stuff they like so much. But what about the myriad other subdisciplines that CS encompasses, are the EEs of McGill superior in these areas also? I hope that you're not implying that EEs enjoy and excel at AI, Theory of Computation and Algorithms. If so then why aren't they all CS majors? Could it be possible that there are a race of superpeople in the EE dept of McGill? From your description I get the impression that the EEs there could master any subject thrown at them. By the way, wouldn't you consider yourself a Computer Engineer rather than an EE? In that case I would hope that you would slay the CS majors in a filesystems and database course. Here at the University of Rochester the only way to get a CS degree is through the Mathematics department. There are BA and BS programs each of which is like a math degree with a heavy concentration of CS. Piss on you and your Discrete Math experience, if you had taken it here you would have been eaten alive by the CS majors. Reciprocally I found the EEs in my Complex Analysis class to be the ones who whined about problems they couldn't just look up in the textbook. I for one can give credit where it's due. I appreciate the EE majors of the world, they worry about the nit-pickity low-level details so I don't have to. I wish EEs would feel the same way about CS people and their high- level nit-picking. The world needs both of us and we need to realize that we're all better in some things than others are. > Rigour is not the exclusive preserve of CSs Indeed, I wish that all disciplines subscribed to the rigor of mathematics. Granted, the situation at Rochester may not be typical of the CS situation across the world but at least I realize this and don't seek to imply that it is. --------------- Paul C. Gardner UUCP: ..!{allegra,seismo,decvax,cmcl2}!rochester!gardner USMail: PO. Box 29404 River Station, Rochester NY