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From: g-rh@cca.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Role of computer science
Message-ID: <10457@cca.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Oct-86 02:37:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: cca.10457
Posted: Wed Oct  8 02:37:35 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Oct-86 05:27:56 EDT
References: <10331@cca.UUCP> <10410@cca.UUCP>
Reply-To: g-rh@cca.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Organization: Computer Corp. of America, Cambridge
Lines: 39

In article <> andy@Shasta.UUCP (Andy Freeman) writes:
>
>I heard in the late 70's (I have a Stanford BSEE) that the EE programs
>at Stanford and MIT weren't accredited.  I still don't care enough to
>check.  (I'm not sure what accreditation means in the professional vs.
>academic argument, but it is interesting that no one at Stanford seemed
>concerned.)

	Aha!!  I always suspected that.  :-)

>
>You obviously haven't tried to live on a professor's salary in the
>Santa Clara valley or near Boston. :-)  But seriously, professors
>here consult extensively/expensively and/or have companies.  They
>also get a lot of industrial funding.  Assuming that these companies
>are getting their money's worth, either the professors aren't academics
>(by your definition) or these companies value their academic bent.
>(I suspect your definition.)
>
	Good point.  [Make that some professors though.]  My thesis
was not so much that academics were unconcious of the value of money
(something that no one who has ever negotiated a consulting contract
would credit) but that the biases and viewpoints of someone in an
academic position will be different from those of someone in industry.

	Ignoring for the moment the cases where companies don't get
their money's worth (not uncommon), I don't think your dichotomy is
a true dichotomy.  If we grant that the entrepenurial professor is
a true academic (there are purists who don't agree) we don't have to
conclude that the purchasers want their academic bent -- what they
want is their [the professors] specialized knowledge.  In particular,
they want that portion that is relevant to their application.  There
is nothing, after all, that says that academic knowledge must be devoid
of utility.

-- 

Richard Harter, SMDS Inc. [Disclaimers not permitted by company policy.]
	For Cheryl :-)