Big Tech is getting cozy with computer science departments

Post by vixen99 » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 1:18 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #5

blackbear_ wrote: post #2

This is all wrong. The purpose of Universities is to uphold, expand and disseminate human culture, not to prepare people for a career in the industry. Big tech should not be allowed to piggyback on the reputation of educational institutions to push their products and the latest fads at the expense of the fundamentals.

>>The purpose of Universities is to uphold, expand and disseminate human culture, not to prepare people for a career in the industry. Like, I personally agree with you, but then I also think that we don't have the right to define it as such. There's plenty of people who think that the main goal of a university(at least in scientific/engineering fields) should be to prepare people for working in the industry. Equally,…

Post by SamuelAdams » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 1:26 PM UTC

LatteLazy wrote: post #39

blackbear_ wrote: post #2

This is all wrong. The purpose of Universities is to uphold, expand and disseminate human culture, not to prepare people for a career in the industry. Big tech should not be allowed to piggyback on the reputation of educational institutions to push their products and the latest fads at the expense of the fundamentals.

Respectfully, you can't tell universities what their purpose is unless you're prepared to fund it. When these places got the majority of their funding from the state, the state could expect high minded ideals and social outcomes. But now their not, universities need to cater to their customers. Their customers are students, they expect a degree, an "experience" and a job at the end. Universities either need to provid…

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 2:16 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #60

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then maybe we, as a culture, should work harder on not looking down on people who do the actual labor of keeping civilization afloat.

Well, good luck with that. It's pretty much universal that people appreciate some kinds of work and look down on others.

Post by Beldin » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 2:30 PM UTC

Orthw2020 wrote: post #58

Beldin wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an assistant prof in CS: - books can partially teach you the "how" and also partially the "why". - at university, you are being taught how to teach yourself, not necessarily how to perform practical things. Age of the exercise is therefore less relevant. - ideally, teaching a room full of 50 students is easy better than an online class with 50, which easily should beat a video. Not all classes are like this which…

> ...at university, you are being taught how to teach yourself, not necessarily how to perform practical things. vs getting a self-taught junior role early and not being $100k in debt?

Post by detaro » Fri, Dec 04, 2020, 2:36 PM UTC

imtringued wrote: post #68

chrisseaton wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there were guest lectures by Microsoft employees Given that MS employs some seriously world-leading computer science academics, isn't this a great thing? I wish I got lectures from people like this!

What if you don't want to work at Microsoft or Microsoft doesn't want you? Then you've just wasted a lot of time.