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Yes? As someone who didn't major in chemistry or go into a related field... what the hell does someone with a degree in chemistry do when they graduate? Go and work in a coffeeshop?
Edit: the original post seems to have been edited several times since my original comment, including the clarification that she's a high school teacher in the UK.
It's a great subtle troll that the title refers to professional programmers as "IT professionals." They of course don't think of themselves that way; they're "developers", "engineers", or "hackers." To them, IT is the poor guy installing Adobe Reader on the manager's PC.
Referring to people who build software as "IT" is a UK thing. The author is from the UK.
"Do you expect Chemistry students to walk out of school ready to begin work in a lab?" Erm, yes? In fact, the folks I know who made it into industry and graduate school openly hated people who had come into their workspaces without that knowledge. It is simply not possible for teachers to be able to keep up to date with the latest flavours in industry" Then why the hell are we paying as much as we are for tuition? Ev…
I can assure you that tuition rates have very little to do with salaries for Computer Science professors.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess I'm annoyed by the false dichotomy. I don't agree with you, though. I think the schools should teach theory. Anyone that can learn that theory (algorithms, data structures, computability) should probably be able to be useful without much trouble. That's been my experience with CS interns, at least. edit: I also distinguish between CS and CE. I'd firmly agree with you that CE or other engineering oriented degr…
I'm curious what the "computer science" equivalent in the engineering world would be. All of the engineering majors study a particular type of engineering: mechanical, electrical, computer, construction. There's no "engineering science" program that I'm aware of that would teach the theory behind engineering and award a degree just for that. Instead, the engineering student must understand that way of thinking simult…
Actually the University of Toronto offers an "Eng Sci" program that is exactly this. They offer it alongside their regular engineering program. A guy I went to high school with dropped out of the eng sci program because it was "too theoretical" for him and he wanted a more practical education.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess I'm annoyed by the false dichotomy. I don't agree with you, though. I think the schools should teach theory. Anyone that can learn that theory (algorithms, data structures, computability) should probably be able to be useful without much trouble. That's been my experience with CS interns, at least. edit: I also distinguish between CS and CE. I'd firmly agree with you that CE or other engineering oriented degr…
I'm curious what the "computer science" equivalent in the engineering world would be. All of the engineering majors study a particular type of engineering: mechanical, electrical, computer, construction. There's no "engineering science" program that I'm aware of that would teach the theory behind engineering and award a degree just for that. Instead, the engineering student must understand that way of thinking simult…
It's a great subtle troll that the title refers to professional programmers as "IT professionals." They of course don't think of themselves that way; they're "developers", "engineers", or "hackers." To them, IT is the poor guy installing Adobe Reader on the manager's PC.
They of course don't think of themselves that way; they're "engineers" My Software Engineering degree is accredited by the Australian Institute of Engineers. I am an Engineer.
I think there's a distinction to be made between Computer Science and Software Engineering as separate disciplines.
In Portugal universities call Software Engineering to Computer Science degrees.
"Do you expect Chemistry students to walk out of school ready to begin work in a lab?" Yes? As someone who didn't major in chemistry or go into a related field... what the hell does someone with a degree in chemistry do when they graduate? Go and work in a coffeeshop? Edit: the original post seems to have been edited several times since my original comment, including the clarification that she's a high school teacher…
I see this a lot from small- and medium-sized business owners I interact with from time to time. They want CS graduates who can walk in the door and design and implement an entire system using a very specific set of (often closed-source, vendor-specific) tools with zero training. And they'd ideally like to pay no more than $40k/yr because, ya know, this person just got out of college! CS knowledge is, I think, valued…
A good part of this is that almost all software engineering is vocational, right? But it isn't always taught that way, and somehow in the public mind CS has become equated with "able to program computers". This sucks two ways: first, it means that people with solid theoretical foundations in CS are derided if they can't--for example--get an iPhone to print to a wireless printer, and second (and worse!) it means that…
I think there's a distinction to be made between Computer Science and Software Engineering as separate disciplines.
Computer Science seems it should be what "pre-med" is for someone on the way to becoming a medical doctor.