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Challenges
and Opportunities of
Interdisciplinary
Computer Science Education
Jiannong Cao
Internet & Mobile Computing Lab
Department of Computing
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Email: csjcao@comp.polyu.edu.hk
http://www.comp.polyu.edu.hk/~csjcao/
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Outline
•
What is computer science
as a
discipline?
•
How do we identify ourselves?
•
Is there a
need of interdisciplinary education in CS
?
•
What are the challenges and opportunities
?
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•
Computer science concerns itself with the nature of
algorithms and computations it spans both theory and
practice:
-
Computational representation of abstract concepts
-
Computability
-
Computational complexity
-
Design, definition and implementation of programming languages
-
Nature of abstraction and specification
-
…
•
It underpins more than the above:
-
New areas of mathematical study, e.g., logic
-
Computational thinking
-
Computational tools and experiments
What is CS as a discipline?
4
•
Its perimeter has broaden, its scope and focus have
changed continuously over the past 70 years
•
Shift of focus from algorithms and programs to systems
-
h
ighly dynamic depending on characteristics of execution
platform
-
Increasingly integrated and interacting with the physical
environment
-
Cross
-
layer and cyber
-
physical co
-
design
What is CS as a discipline?
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•
More than any other discipline, CS is driven by
applications and progress in technology.
-
Applications impose domain
-
specific requirements
-
New technologies deemed existing solutions
obsolete
What is CS as a discipline?
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•
Users nowadays are part of the computing systems,
some of them are even computer programmers
•
Many other disciplines build their own IT / Computing
infrastructure, have their own programming tools, and
develop their own applications
•
Identity crisis?
•
How to define the territory of CS?
•
What are our roles as computer scientists?
•
Where the field is going?
How do we identify ourselves
?
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Computing
is
the computer
-
specific part
of IT
but
it is involved in all the parts
“
IT
is the technology that
helps to produce,
manipulate, store,
communicate, and
disseminate information”
Computer
Technology
Material
Science
Use of IT
(Applications …)
Communication
Technology
How do we identify ourselves
?
8
•
Our mission as Computer Scientists?
How do we identify ourselves
?
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•
Computing is interdisciplinary in nature
-
Knowledge and technology in other fields
-
Requirements in application domains
-
Knowledge about people as users (CHI)
•
Without learning and being equipped with knowledge
in fields that help us to create better computers, we
cannot advance CS
•
Without clear understanding of domain knowledge, we
cannot make solutions and systems effective.
•
Without understanding the users, we cannot develop
“user
-
centered” systems.
The need of interdisciplinary education
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•
Creativity often requires interdisciplinary knowledge
•
Many intellectual, social and practical problems require
interdisciplinary approaches
•
Help attract more people to the field and improve
retention
The need of interdisciplinary education
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•
Changing our mentality from wishing for more academic
prestige to wishing for changing people’s life.
•
Changing the idea that CS is more on “thinking about
computing in the abstract” than “thinking about novel
ways to design and build computer systems that match
reality”
•
Learning about commercial / practical products and
understanding their limits
•
Bridging communication gaps and fragmented disciplines
Challenges and Opportunities
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•
Students are not taught much about how to approach
practical solutions to real
-
world problems, working with
people from other disciplines
-
CS
curricula seldom recognize importance of interdisciplinary
education
-
Difficult to develop CS textbooks with true interdisciplinary
examples and projects.
•
It
is
very hard
to create a real interdisciplinary program
-
Not
only double
majors, major/minors, but
join
degree
-
Teaching, faculty development
, assessment
-
Structural barriers: institutional support, curriculum
development and assessment, faculty attitude, etc.
Challenges and Opportunities
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•
ACM
/ IEEE CS Curricula 2012
-
CS is rapidly changing field, drawing from and contributing to
variety of
disciplines
-
Able to bridge to multi
-
disciplinary
work
•
US NSF funded workshops to identify strategies for
increasing and maintaining enrolment, improving the quality
og
computing education
-
Integrative Computing Education and Research (ICER)
-
Strengthen interdisciplinary connections
-
Increase interdisciplinary collaboration
-
Strengthen industry involvement
•
Efforts on developing interdisciplinary computing
Challenges and Opportunities
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