Oris D. Friesen

A comprehensive curriculum for IT education and workforce development: an engineering approach

Noting the shortage of IT professionals nationally [1], we propose a comprehensive curriculum that supports a variety of programs geared to all ages from early school years to retirement and beyond. Current IT workforce development efforts are limited to training, and have not as yet focused on education and professional development. Largely, this is due to a lack of a science underpinning for IT related curricula. Without such a unified science component, a structured organization of information related concepts cannot be derived.Our proposal includes the development of a number of programs addressing the needs of a variety of learners ranging from elementary school through college and beyond. Seven programs, each with a specific emphasis for various groups, are being developed. Such essential issues as industrial-academic liaisons, workforce (re)training, promotional and awareness programs, teacher training, and IT professional role redefinition, are integral pieces of this project. All developments will be firmly founded on the scientific framework of information science and engineering [2].This work is supported by NSF grant DUE-9950168.

A logical foundation for an information engineering curriculum

We propose a new model for IT education based on engineering principles and in line with the latest advancement in information science. We justify the needs for such a discipline and outline the science requirements that would distinguish it from IT training programs. The first step therefore is to determine the appropriate science foundation for an information-centered curriculum and, based on this foundation, create a comprehensive curriculum.

Databases in large AI systems

Databases are at the heart of most real-world knowledge base systems. The management and effective use of these databases will be the limiting factors in our ability to build ever more complex AI systems. This article reports on a workshop that explored how databases and their associated technologies can best be used in the development of large AI applications.