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Letters to the Editor: A misunderstood science


By SD Times News Team
February 15, 2009 —  (Page 1 of 3)
In regards to Zeichick’s Take (“Rebooting Computer Science”), I think that Computer Science has always been misunderstood. When I was in college in the late 1970s, Lehigh University had a Computer Engineering degree, but no Computer Science until my last year there. Via the rumor mill, I understood the reason was that three departments wanted it to be part of their department: Math, Philosophy and Electrical Engineering. EE has changed to Electrical and Computer Engineering, and now includes Computer Science.

Another thing about Computer Science is that what you learn today is almost always outdated the next year. And depending on what a person is interested in, there are so many areas to explore. Only some of these areas lead to real jobs. There are only so many compiler designing jobs around.

Companies also need to be more involved with the college community and to inform them of what the company is really looking for when they're hiring new grads. Although, I think neither the ones doing the hiring nor HR really know what they need. What good is a Computer Science degree if you can't get a job?

I have taken some courses at my local technical college. From my experience with the programming courses, I would never hire a graduate of my college for a programming job, because they really didn't do any actual programming in the courses I took. One thing that might be of use to those wanting to learn more about what they can do with Computer Science is what Lehigh had for their engineering students.

The first engineering course was a programming course, with a weekly lab that included a visitor from one of the Engineering departments to explain what his or her field of engineering could do. Sometimes we even visited the classrooms for those departments. Because everyone needs to understand computer technology, this idea could be part of an “intro to computers” course that is required for all students. Also, there may be a way of relating some courses within other majors that require some Computer Science understanding, such as how to really make use of MS Access (with advanced VBA programming), or advanced Macro programming for MS Excel.

 Related Search Term(s): computer science, professional development

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