Software Engineering Education During the 21 st Century Dick B. Simmons, PhD, P.E. Texas A&M University College Station, TX

ABET Accredited Programs in 2004 Computer Science187 Computer Engineering154 Software Engineering4 Information Systems7

Students Saying NO to Computer Science in USA MIT EE&CS students –385in 2002 –240in2003 –200in 2004 Rutgers –CS Dept enrollment thousands less than peak of 6,500 CMU CS Dept. –3,200 applicants in 2001 –2,000 applicants in 2004 U CA at Berkley CS Majors –240 in Spring 2003 –226 in Spring 2004 Stanford CS undergrad majors –171 in –118 in

Outlook for Software Engineering Jobs Software Engineering jobs have been in demand since the 1968 NATO Conference that expressed need for Software Engineers US Bureau of Labor Statistics says Software Engineering jobs will be among the 10 fastest growing occupations through 2012 Help wanted adds are looking for Software Engineers

USA Jobs CS jobs in the US are being outsourced off shore to India and China. –Middle of the Software Life Cycle (SLC) –Coding –Unit and Integration testing SE jobs are remaining in the US –Upstream SLC –Downstream SLC

Software Development Paradigm is changing Every student will own a client computer Every student will have access to the Internet Servers will be available to students with no need to physically be on campus The Demand for Software Engineers will increase The Demand for Computer Science professionals will decrease

SE Education Trends for the 21 st Century Centers of SE excellence should be created to support use of leading edge software tools. These centers should support both proprietary and open systems software that is interoperable. Training courses on use of software tools should be available to students on classroom web site SE courses should be taught by synchronous and asynchronous distance learning where tenure track faculty at universities and adjunct professors from industry creates courses. Global software development methodology should be emphasized that encourages access to the most skilled labor at the least cost.

Software best practices should be encouraged. Continuous software process improvement should be encouraged. All SE courses should be made available via Internet web based distance leaning. CASE Tools that supports global software development should be provided. SE Certificate and Software Engineering Professional Licensing programs should be encouraged. SE Education Trends for the 21 st Century (Continued)