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Northeastern's redesign of the CS curriculum

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Re: Northeastern's redesign of the CS curriculum

#31

Post by unethical_ban »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #26

I went to Caltech when they were contemplating similar things in the CS curriculum, although the normal curriculum was less radical than Northeastern's seems to be. There is a tension here that is being understated which is that people of every major now take the intro-level CS class because programming is integral to everything. Teaching algorithm design in that class is not particularly useful to a biologist who ju…

for non-majors isn't radical.

"Stats for business"

"PE for physicists"

Why isn't "programming for sciences" not a thing?

Re: Northeastern's redesign of the CS curriculum

#33

Post by thereisnospork »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #26

I went to Caltech when they were contemplating similar things in the CS curriculum, although the normal curriculum was less radical than Northeastern's seems to be. There is a tension here that is being understated which is that people of every major now take the intro-level CS class because programming is integral to everything. Teaching algorithm design in that class is not particularly useful to a biologist who ju…

"Practical python" is undoubtedly useful to a biologist, but I wouldnt understate the utility of an intro to algorithms for technical but non CS majors.

'Algorithmic thinking' more or less doesn't exist in a lot of the classical disciplines with any degree of rigor, so a CS class is the only place a biologist is going to be exposed.

Specifically for utility, there is a very tight mapping between 'how do I search these strings' and 'how do I [most efficiently] design a set of experiments [searching for a a result]'. Both in the literal algorithms as well as the logical framework necessary to extend past trivial examples.

Re: Northeastern's redesign of the CS curriculum

#34

Post by sarchertech »

unethical_ban wrote: post #31
pclmulqdq wrote: post #26

I went to Caltech when they were contemplating similar things in the CS curriculum, although the normal curriculum was less radical than Northeastern's seems to be. There is a tension here that is being understated which is that people of every major now take the intro-level CS class because programming is integral to everything. Teaching algorithm design in that class is not particularly useful to a biologist who ju…

for non-majors isn't radical. "Stats for business" "PE for physicists" Why isn't "programming for sciences" not a thing?

It is. When I was in school we had a matlab class for grad students in other departments.

I don’t know why you’d try to throw CS majors and Biology majors looking to cobble together scripts into the same class.

Re: Northeastern's redesign of the CS curriculum

#36

Post by sarchertech »

deactivatedexp wrote: post #32

i'm a dropout just do horrible coding for fun can anyone explain why CS programs are adamant about not teaching on the job skills? like databases, web, embedded, security plus theory

That heavily depends on the school. But I’ll add many years later, I appreciate the theoretical classes much more because the knowledge I gained there has aged much better.

Re: Northeastern's redesign of the CS curriculum

#37

Post by ycombinatrix »

chrisaycock wrote: post #6

This op-ed was written by an undergrad and complains that Northeastern's switch to Python (from Racket) for its introductory classes will prevent students from learning fundamentals of computer science. But that complaint can be made about any language! "This dynamically typed language won't allow students to understand type safety." "This high-level language won't allow students to learn pointers and systems program…

How about you focus on the argument instead of making ad hominem attacks?

>Racket was chosen because it has “teaching languages” that can gradually introduce features as students are taught the relevant design principles.

So no, that complaint can't be made about any language.

Re: Northeastern's redesign of the CS curriculum

#38

Post by tiffanyh »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #26

I went to Caltech when they were contemplating similar things in the CS curriculum, although the normal curriculum was less radical than Northeastern's seems to be. There is a tension here that is being understated which is that people of every major now take the intro-level CS class because programming is integral to everything. Teaching algorithm design in that class is not particularly useful to a biologist who ju…

> There is a tension here that is being understated which is that people of every major now take the intro-level CS class because programming is integral to everything.

Why doesn’t the CS department have a different intro class for CS majors and non-CS majors.

That’s a common practice in the mathematics, physics, etc. departments.

(To have harder intro classes for the students majoring in your department vs those who don’t.)

Re: Northeastern's redesign of the CS curriculum

#40

Post by klooney »

tiffanyh wrote: post #38
pclmulqdq wrote: post #26

I went to Caltech when they were contemplating similar things in the CS curriculum, although the normal curriculum was less radical than Northeastern's seems to be. There is a tension here that is being understated which is that people of every major now take the intro-level CS class because programming is integral to everything. Teaching algorithm design in that class is not particularly useful to a biologist who ju…

> There is a tension here that is being understated which is that people of every major now take the intro-level CS class because programming is integral to everything. Why doesn’t the CS department have a different intro class for CS majors and non-CS majors. That’s a common practice in the mathematics, physics, etc. departments. (To have harder intro classes for the students majoring in your department vs those who…

At my university, they did, I don't think it's that uncommon.
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