A. Joe Turner

Computing as a discipline

A summary is given of a report that had the following goals: to describe computer science in a way that emphasizes fundamental questions and significant accomplishments; to propose a teaching paradigm for computer science that conforms to traditional scientific standards, emphasizes the development of competence in the field, and harmoniously integrates theory, experimentation, and design; and to give a detailed example of an introductory course sequence in computer science that is based on the curriculum model and the disciplinary description. This task was extended to encompass both computer science and computer engineering. This summary encompasses: paradigms; the role of programming; a description of computing; a curriculum model; an introductory sequence; laboratories; and accreditation.<<ETX>>

Computing research programs in the U.S.

• Prospective students. There are now more than 150 doctoral programs and more than 350 master’s programs in computing in the U.S. [1, 4]. Selecting a graduate program has become a formidable task, and it is very difficult to be admitted to the “topranked’’ or “well-known’’ programs. Reports such as this one help identify very good programs that can be considered alternatives to more well-known programs. • Current students and faculty. Recently successful programs can have difficulty publicizing their success outside a narrow audience. Employment prospects for current students and recruiting prospects for current programs can be enhanced by an independent validation of increased program productivity.

Computing as a discipline: preliminary report of the ACM task force on the core of computer science

It is ACMs 40th year and an old debate continues. Is computer science a science? An engineering discipline? Or merely a technology, an inventor and purveyor of computing commodities? What is the intellectual substance of the discipline? Is it lasting, or will it fade within a generation? Do core curricula in computer science and engineering accurately reflect the field? How can theory and lab work be integrated in a computing curriculum? We project an image of a technology-oriented discipline whose fundamentals are in mathematics and engineering — for example, we represent algorithms as the most basic objects of concern and programming and hardware design as the primary activities. The view that “computer science equals programming” is especially strong in our curricula: the introductory course is programming, the technology is in our core courses, and the science is in our electives. This view blocks progress in reorganizing the curriculum and turns away the best students, who want a greater challenge. It denies a coherent approach to making experimental and theoretical computer science integral and harmonious parts of a curriculum. Those in the discipline know that computer science encompasses far more than programming. The emphasis on programming arises from our long-standing belief that programming languages are excellent vehicles for gaining access to the rest of the field — but this belief limits out ability to speak about the discipline in terms that reveal its full breadth and richness. The field has matured enough that it is now possible to describe its intellectual substance in a new and compelling way. In the spring of 1986, ACM President Adele Goldberg and ACM Education Board Chairman Robert Aiken appointed this task force with the enthusiastic cooperation of the IEEE Computer Society. At the same time, the Computer Society formed a task force on computing laboratories with the enthusiastic cooperation of the ACM. The charter of the task force has three components:Present a description of computer science that emphasizes fundamental questions and significant accomplishments. Propose a new teaching paradigm for computer science that conforms to traditional scientific standards and harmoniously integrates theory and experimentation. Give at least one detailed example of a three-semester introductory course sequence in computer science based on the curriculum model and the disciplinary description. We immediately extended our task to encompass computer science and computer engineering, for we came to the conclusion that in the core material there is no fundamental difference between the two fields. We use the phrase “discipline of computing” to embrace all of computer science and engineering. The rest of this paper is a summary of the recommendation. The description of the discipline is presented in a series of passes, starting from a short definition and culminating with a matrix as shown in the figure. The short definition: Computer science and engineering is the systematic study of algorithmic processes that describe and transform information: their theory, analysis, design, efficiency, implementation, and application. The fundamental question underlying all of computing is, “What can be (efficiently) automated?” The detailed description of the field fills in each of the 27 cells in the matrix with significant issues and accomplishments. (That description occupies about 16 pages of the report.) For the curriculum model, we recommend that the introductory course consist of regular lectures and a closely coordinated weekly laboratory. The lectures emphasize fundamentals; the laboratories emphasize technology and know-how. The pattern of closely coordinated lectures and labs can be repeated where appropriate in other courses. The recommended model is traditional in the physical sciences and in engineering: lectures emphasize enduring principles and concepts while laboratories emphasize the transient material and skills relating to the current technology.

An ACM response: the scope and directions of Computer Science

The National Research Councils Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) chartered a two-year study on the scope and directions of computer science. As part of this study, ACM was asked to provide input on three important questions, the answers to which could have significant impact on the future direction of our discipline and profession.

Current accreditation, certification, and licensure activities related to software engineering

The issues associated with the accreditation, certification, and licensure of software engineers are, or at least should be, of great concern to the software engineering community. Perhaps as a result of publicity about safety-critical software disasters in the news media, some state legislatures have considered regulating the practice of software engineering, and some professionals believe that accreditation, certification, and licensure are inevitable. Yet there is no agreed-upon body of knowledge for software engineering on which to base accreditation, certification, or licensure, which makes implementing them difficult at best. In addition, it is not clear that these processes and possible mechanisms to support them are well understood within the software engineering community. This paper surveys how these three processes are conducted in other professions, summarizes the processes as they currently exist for computing in general, identifies some issues that are involved in implementing the processes for software engineering, and suggests possible actions that can be taken by the software engineering profession. The implications of accreditation, certification, and licensure for education are also discussed.

Trends in teaching informatics.

Most of the development of informatics curricula has focused almost exclusively on the technical content of the courses in a curriculum. More recently there has been increasing attention paid to pedagogical and nontechnical subject course material. This paper surveys some of the trends in informatics education relative to pedagogical and nontechnical aspects. Some observations are made on current trends and the importance of these aspects relative to more traditional curricular concerns.

Assessment in computer science (abstract)

This report was prepared by Tony Schwartz, Associate Director for Collection Management, with Patricia Pereira-Pujol, Sciences Librarian. Conference Proceedings FIU has access to the following online series that include conference proceedings: Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library; IEEE/IET Electronic Library; and Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, including the subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics.

Some IFIP happenings

As described in previous columns, the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a federation of IT societies. ACM is a member of IFIP, and SIGCSE sponsors ACMs representative to the IFIP Technical Committee on Education (TC3). This column provides a summary of some recent and upcoming IFIP activities.

IFIP educational activities

This is the second in a series of columns about IFIP, the International Federation for Information Processing. In the previous (December 2006) column, we discussed the general organization and scope of IFIP. IFIPs members are computing societies, one per country except for the USA, where both ACM and the IEEE Computer Society are members.

More on IFIP educational activities

This column provides a summary of some recent and upcoming IFIP events.