matloff@winnie.Berkeley.EDU (07/25/90)
In article <37743@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> matloff@heather.ucdavis.edu (Norm Matloff) writes: >BTW, why have a CS major at all? I'm not being snide here. If you >really feel that universities should not be "technology schools" >(which I agree), why not go all the way, and not have a CS major at >all? Let the companies themselves provide training courses. ^Stanford and MIT agree with that. MIT only added a CS major in the 1980s ^and Stanford still doesn't have an undergraduate degree. Are you sure about the latter? ^Both universities ^do offer graduate degrees on the more theoretical side. I can't agree there. There are lots of nontheoretical CS dissertations which come out of those two schools. Norm
russ@prism.gatech.EDU (RUSS SHACKEFORD) (07/25/90)
In article <37751@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, matloff@winnie.Berkeley.EDU writes: > > In article <37743@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> matloff@heather.ucdavis.edu (Norm Matloff) writes: > > >BTW, why have a CS major at all? I'm not being snide here. If you > >really feel that universities should not be "technology schools" > >(which I agree), why not go all the way, and not have a CS major at > >all? Let the companies themselves provide training courses. > > ^Stanford and MIT agree with that. MIT only added a CS major in the 1980s > ^and Stanford still doesn't have an undergraduate degree. > Unfortunately, most institutions will offer CS degrees in the technical training mold. This is largely due to the impoverished view of higher education that has taken root and the corresponding subservience to the marketplace. Oh, well.... On the issue of what *should* be in place, I beleive that something similar to a CS program is mostly appropriate at the grad level. To me, the biggest contribution that computing makes to society is to provide a domain in which the chief object of study is process.... for it is the perspective of understanding phenomena in terms of process that is the central thrust of modern times. Regardless of subject matter, most any field is (or should be) more oriented to an understanding that is more process-oriented than it was a couple decades ago. Computing is the domain where process itself, and the interrelation of processes, comes under study. I like this occuring at the grad level, as a grad-only program insures that the population of students is both varied and versed in other things. My favorite idea of a computing program is that of a melting pot of disciplines. In this vein, I was pleased that, when Ga Tech upgraded its School of Information and Computer Science to the status of College, it became the College of Computing, not the College of Computer Science. The idea behind this was that Computing is not an isolated discipline unto itself. Rather, it is something that impacts and permeates activity in all other disciplines in one way or another. It is a verb, not a noun. Time will tell of the new College lives up to it's very appropriate name..... russ -- Russell Shackelford The College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332 russ@prism.gatech.edu (404) 834-4759