The Carnegie-Mellon Computer Science Department’s Curriculum Design Project examined the current state of computer science and computer science curricula, projected the requirements for undergraduate education in computer science over the next decade, and developed a curriculum suitable for a computer science major. This book presents the resulting design.
We begin by surveying the field of computer science, projecting some future developments, and placing the field in context in academia and society. In Section 2.1, we describe the scope of the field we consider to be computer science. In Section 2.2 we make some projections about the kind of computing we may be doing ten years hence. On the basis of these projections, we predict some of the issues the field must face over the next decade and some of the changes we must anticipate.
Computer science has grown rapidly throughout its short lifetime. Universities have been major contributors to that growth, and they bear a major responsibility for dissemination of knowledge about computer science. Professional education in computer science is growing more rigorous, and we expect an increasing need for students to master a growing set of fundamental concepts. Mere programming skill will no longer suffice for most computing professionals. The field will require solid technical expertise comparable to that expected of engineers, and most development work will require genuine competence in both the application field and computer science. In addition, many people will need to use computers in sophisticated ways and understand the implications of the spreading computer technology. Universities must begin now to respond to these emerging needs.
The curriculum described here was developed in response to objectives set forth in Spring 1982 [104]. The premises and goals from that project plan are reproduced in this section. Although these objectives were formulated with Carnegie-Mellon in mind, they are appropriate for a wide variety of institutions.
This chapter surveys the content of computer science. The objectives are to present a coherent view of the conceptual structure of the field, to indicate the scope of our concerns, and to indicate connections with other fields. The discussion here is not constrained by the need to divide subject matter into courses; Chapter 11 shows how the material described here is organized into specific courses.
This chapter presents a set of requirements and a suggested curriculum for a complete undergraduate computer science major. In keeping with our expectations about the responsibilities of future computer scientists, considerable flexibility is provided to allow for professional breadth, and the computer science component places heavy emphasis on fundamental concepts. To this end, a number of electives are specifically constrained to be mathematics courses, a number of electives are specifically constrained to be nontechnical, and a concentration in an area outside of computer science is required. Even if the curriculum is developed as a set of courses without an associated major, this brief discussion of the sort of program that could be based on the curriculum provides a good global perspective.
In 1979, Ralston was investigating curricula for discrete mathematics [95] and Shaw was participating in evaluations of Curriculum 78 and the role of mathematics in undergraduate computer science. They combined their notes to form a criticism of the mathematical content of Curriculum ’78 that appeared in Communications of the ACM [94]. Some comments on the paper appeared a few months later [69]
In the summer of 1982, the Sloan Foundation conducted a workshop on the curriculum for the first two years of college mathematics. Scherlis and Shaw were invited to contribute a paper on the relation between computer science and mathematics, especially the support that computer science needs from the mathematics curriculum [101], The paper is included here to elaborate the nature of our dependence on mathematics.
The fundamental computer science course in this curriculum is the two-semester sequence FUNDAMENTAL STRUCTURES OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 1 AND II [211/212]. Fundamental Structures was originally designed in 1974 and 1975, and the original lecture notes evolved to a textbook based upon the course[127]. In 1978 William A. Wulf Mary Shaw, Paul N. Hilftnger; and Larty Flon prepared two papers about the course[36, 50] This chapter incorporates extensive material from these two papers along with new information based on more recent offerings of the course.
The curriculum presented here departs from traditional curricula in a number of ways. Further, some of our objectives do not appear explicitly in the design. This chapter presents remarks about the curriculum that may help the reader to interpret and evaluate it.
This chapter presents descriptions of the courses we propose to be the major components of an undergraduate computer science curriculum. We have tried to write descriptions that will indicate clearly the scope and emphasis we have in mind. However, a complete course design is a major undertaking, so most of these descriptions should be viewed as design sketches, not full designs. An overview of the course structure, including course names and prerequisites4, is given in Figure 11-1.
This chapter contains descriptions of related courses in mathematics, statistics, electrical engineering, cognitive psychology, management, and public policy. They are included here because of their close ties to courses described in the previous chapter. In addition, they may be of interest for constructing concentrations in fields allied to computer science.
Mary Shaw
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
The Carnegie-Mellon Curriculum for Undergraduate Computer Science
