CC2005-ACM

AI Matters, 2015

Cover art by Robert Vizzini 4. CS2013 must provide realistic, adoptable recommendations that provide guidance and flexibility, allowing curricular designs that are innovative and track recent developments in the field. The guidelines are intended to provide clear, implementable goals, while also providing the flexibility that programs need in order to respond to a rapidly changing field. CS2013 is intended as guidance, not as a minimal standard against which to evaluate a program. 5. The CS2013 guidelines must be relevant to a variety of institutions. Given the wide range of institutions and programs (including 2-year, 3-year, and 4-year programs; liberal arts, technological, and research institutions; and institutions of every size), it is neither possible nor desirable for these guidelines to dictate curricula for computing. Individual programs will need to evaluate their constraints and environments to construct curricula. 6. The size of the essential knowledge must be managed. While the range of relevant topics has expanded, the size of undergraduate education has not. Thus, CS2013 must carefully choose among topics and recommend the essential elements. 7. Computer science curricula should be designed to prepare graduates to succeed in a rapidly changing field. Computer Science is rapidly changing and will continue to change for the foreseeable future. Curricula must prepare students for lifelong learning and must include professional practice (e.g., communication skills, teamwork, ethics) as components of the undergraduate experience. Computer science students must learn to integrate theory and practice, to recognize the importance of abstraction, and to appreciate the value of good engineering design. 8. CS2013 should identify the fundamental skills and knowledge that all computer science graduates should possess while providing the greatest flexibility in selecting topics. To this end, we have introduced three levels of knowledge description: Tier-1 Core, Tier-2 Core, and Elective. For a full discussion of Tier-1 Core, Tier-2 Core, and Elective, see Chapter 4: Introduction to the Body of Knowledge. 9. CS2013 should provide the greatest flexibility in organizing topics into courses and curricula. Knowledge areas are not intended to describe specific courses. There are many-22-novel, interesting, and effective ways to combine topics from the Body of Knowledge into courses. 10. The development and review of CS2013 must be broadly based. The CS2013 effort must include participation from many different constituencies including industry, government, and the full range of higher education institutions involved in computer science education. It must take into account relevant feedback from these constituencies. Chapter 3: Characteristics of Graduates Graduates of computer science programs should have fundamental competency in the areas described by the Body of Knowledge (see Chapter 4), particularly the core topics contained there. However, there are also competences that graduates of CS programs should have that are not explicitly listed in the Body of Knowledge. Professionals in the field typically embody a characteristic style of thinking and problem solving, a style that emerges from the experiences obtained through study of the field and professional practice. Below, we describe the characteristics that we believe should be attained at least at an elementary level by graduates of computer science programs. These characteristics will enable their success in the field and further professional development. Some of these characteristics and skills also apply to other fields. They are included here because the development of these skills and characteristics should be explicitly addressed and encouraged by computer science programs. This list is based on a similar list in CC2001 and CS2008. The substantive changes that led to this new version were influenced by responses to a survey conducted by the CS2013 Steering Committee. At a broad level, the expected characteristics of computer science graduates include the following: Technical understanding of computer science Graduates should have a mastery of computer science as described by the core of the Body of Knowledge. Familiarity with common themes and principles Graduates need understanding of a number of recurring themes, such as abstraction, complexity, and evolutionary change, and a set of general principles, such as sharing a common resource, security, and concurrency. Graduates should recognize that these themes and principles have broad application to the field of computer science and should not consider them as relevant only to the domains in which they were introduced.-24-Appreciation of the interplay between theory and practice A fundamental aspect of computer science is understanding the interplay between theory and practice and the essential links between them. Graduates of a computer science program need to understand how theory and practice influence each other. System-level perspective Graduates of a computer science program need to think at multiple levels of detail and abstraction. This understanding should transcend the implementation details of the various components to encompass an appreciation for the structure of computer systems and the processes involved in their construction and analysis. They need to recognize the context in which a computer system may function, including its interactions with people and the physical world. Problem solving skills Graduates need to understand how to apply the knowledge they have gained to solve real problems, not just write code and move bits. They should to be able to design and improve a system based on a quantitative and qualitative assessment of its functionality, usability and performance. They should realize that there are multiple solutions to a given problem and that selecting among them is not a purely technical activity, as these solutions will have a real impact on people's lives. Graduates also should be able to communicate their solution to others, including why and how a solution solves the problem and what assumptions were made. Project experience To ensure that graduates can successfully apply the knowledge they have gained, all graduates of computer science programs should have been involved in at least one substantial project. In most cases, this experience will be a software development project, but other experiences are also appropriate in particular circumstances. Such projects should challenge students by being integrative, requiring evaluation of potential solutions, and requiring work on a larger scale than typical course projects. Students should have opportunities to develop their interpersonal communication skills as part of their project experience. Commitment to lifelong learning Graduates should realize that the computing field advances at a rapid pace, and graduates must possess a solid foundation that allows and encourages them to maintain relevant skills as the-25-field evolves. Specific languages and technology platforms change over time. Therefore, graduates need to realize that they must continue to learn and adapt their skills throughout their careers. To develop this ability, students should be exposed to multiple programming languages, tools, paradigms, and technologies as well as the fundamental underlying principles throughout their education. In addition, graduates are now expected to manage their own career development and advancement. Graduates seeking career advancement often engage in professional development activities, such as certifications, management training, or obtaining domain-specific knowledge. Commitment to professional responsibility Graduates should recognize the social, legal, ethical, and cultural issues inherent in the discipline of computing. They must further recognize that social, legal, and ethical standards vary internationally. They should be knowledgeable about the interplay of ethical issues, technical problems, and aesthetic values that play an important part in the development of computing systems. Practitioners must understand their individual and collective responsibility and the possible consequences of failure. They must understand their own limitations as well as the limitations of their tools. Communication and organizational skills Graduates should have the ability to make effective presentations to a range of audiences about technical problems and their solutions. This may involve face-to-face, written, or electronic communication. They should be prepared to work effectively as members of teams. Graduates should be able to manage their own learning and development, including managing time, priorities, and progress. Awareness of the broad applicability of computing Platforms range from embedded micro-sensors to high-performance clusters and distributed clouds. Computer applications impact nearly every aspect of modern life. Graduates should understand the full range of opportunities available in computing. Appreciation of domain-specific knowledge Graduates should understand that computing interacts with many different domains. Solutions to many problems require both computing skills and domain knowledge. Therefore, graduates need synchronization, performance measurement, or computer security, in addition to topics more specifically related to operating systems. Consequently, such courses will likely draw on material in several Knowledge Areas. Certain fundamental systems topics like latency or parallelism will likely arise in many places in a curriculum. While it is important that such topics do arise, preferably in multiple settings, the Body of Knowledge does not specify the particular settings in which to teach such topics. The course exemplars in Appendix C show multiple ways that such material may be organized into courses. • Parallel computing: Among the changes to the Body of Knowledge from previous reports is a...

2017

This paper describes the characteristics of the Computing Curricula 2020 process, discusses the reasons why it is essential for information systems to be involved, and explores the core structures of existing computing curriculum recommendations, particularly from the learning outcome and competency perspective. The two main categories are the knowledge area – knowledge unit structure used by CE, CS, and SE and the competency structure used by IT and MSIS. Finding a way to express the competency expectations of all degree program types in computing at the same level of abstraction will be a key to the success of the CC2020 project. The upcoming process to develop a new IS undergraduate recommendation will also benefit from CC2020 work and contribute to it.

Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1

ACM/IEEE curriculum guidelines for computer science, such as CS2013 or the forthcoming CS2023, provide well-researched and detailed guidance about the content and skills that make up an undergraduate computer science (CS) program. Liberal arts CS programs often struggle to apply these guidelines within their institutional context and goals. Historically, this has been addressed through the development of model CS curricula tailored for the liberal arts context. We take a different position: that no single model curriculum can apply across the wide range of liberal arts institutions. Instead, we argue that liberal arts CS educators need best practices for using guidelines such as CS2023 to inform curriculum design. These practices must acknowledge the opportunities and priorities of a liberal arts philosophy as well as a program's mission and identity. This paper reviews the context and motivation behind computing in the liberal arts. We also review the history of liberal arts CS educators and ACM/IEEE curriculum guidelines. We present data and trends about liberal arts computing programs, discussing how this informs curriculum design. Finally, we propose a process that guides programs to work with curriculum guidelines through the lens of institutional and program missions and identities, goals, and situational factors. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → Model curricula; Computing education programs.

This paper presents the rationale to build up a Telematics Engineering curriculum. Telematics is a strongly computing oriented area; then, the authors have initially intended to apply the common requirements described in the computing curricula elaborated by the ACM/EEEE-CS Joint Curriculum Task Force. This experience has revealed some problematic aspects in the ACM/IEEE-CS proposal. From the analysis of these problems, a model to guide the selection and specially the approach of the Telematics curriculum contents is proposed. This model can be easily generalized to other strongly computing oriented curricula, whose number is growing everyday, In any case, we have analyzed the usefulness of the Computing Curricula [ACM, 1991] for the design of a curriculum on Telematics. The common requirements constitute the essential contribution of the task force. They are distributed in nine subject areas: Algorithms and Data Structures (AL), Architecture (AR), Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (AI), Database and Information Retrieval (DB), Human-computer Communications (HU), Numerical and Symbolic Computation (NU), Operating Systems (OS), Programming Languages (PL), and Software Methodology and Engineering (SE). Each area is subdivided into several Knowledge Units (KU). Literally, the common requirements form the basis for a curriculum in computing by providing a platform of knowledge that is considered essential for all students who concentrate in the discipline (Denning, 1989]. Adequate curricula will be implemented by combining those KUs and integrating other specific requirements and advanced or complementary topics. The report specifies that the discipline of computing encompasses the labels computer science, computer science and engineering, computer engineering, informatics, and other similar designations. For us, this universal definition is one of the weakest points of the report. It does not reñect an objective analysis but the wish to reach a consensus between the two societies composing the task force.