CSE Undergraduate Curriculum: Where we are / Where we might go Dan Grossman Assistant Professor, 2003-present Curriculum Revision Co-Chair, 2009

Outline Overview of current program –Lots of good news –But room to modernize Near-term goals: 300-level Longer-term possibilities: 400- and 500-level Questions for you Just an overview to frame a deeper discussion

Program Outline 170 graduates a year –Computer Engineering ABET accredited –Computer Science more senior-level flexibility

Program Outline intro 142/3 300-level 8 required 300-level courses –“the core” –details later

Program Outline intro 142/3 300-level Almost 20 regular 400-level courses –Roughly “one per area” 400-level

Program Outline intro 142/3 300-level Capstone design course –Synthesize, design, implement, evaluate, present –Examples: Video game, robotics, developing world tech. Also 3-course animation sequence 400-level capstone

Program Outline intro 142/3 300-level New, small, course-based 5 th -year Master’s –High demand from strong students –Limited funding to date 400-level capstone 5 th -year Masters

External constraints Things we can’t change Quarter system: 10 weeks, even for “project courses” Community colleges –Approved intro courses transfer –“Possible” for transfers to graduate in 2 years ABET requirements for Computer Engineering Credit hour limits for degrees intro 142/3 300-level 400-level capstone 5 th -year Masters

General happiness A lot is working Students mostly happy with courses, careers, etc. –Exit interviews ABET raves in 2008 –Particularly advising staff Capstones a sense of accomplishment and pride –Example: Videos shown at commencement Our top students are amazing –Some of the strongest University-wide –Many to grad school, Microsoft, Google, startups, … –Personally: 5 senior theses in 5 years

Innovation Curriculum growth in last 5ish years via faculty/external initiative “303”: Old-school, everything-else course –C, shell-scripting, development tools, societal implications –Now required New 400-level electives –Computing with MapReduce (“the Google course”) –Computer security –Human-computer interaction Web programming (100-level)

So what’s wrong? Many faculty (& students?), feel our curriculum is –outdated –uncoordinated “The field has grown” “Programming has changed; we haven’t” “We were teaching this course before Nixon resigned” Some frustration and resistance to change –Recent revision attempt “rejected” as non-inclusive (?), risky (?), half-baked (?), fixing the wrong things (?), ??? –Trying “for the last time” in next 6 months success = 1st coordinated revision in a long time

Outline Overview of current program –Lots of good news –But room to modernize Near-term goals: 300-level Longer-term possibilities: 400- and 500-level Questions for you

300-level today (8 required courses) discrete structures Logic, proofs, sets, combinatorics, probability, …

300-level today (8 required courses) discrete structures finite automata, regexps, context-free languages, Turing machines formal models

300-level today (8 required courses) discrete structures big-O, balanced trees, heaps, hashing, sorting, graph algorithms, NP-completeness formal models data structures

300-level today (8 required courses) discrete structures functional programming, static vs. dynamic typing, modularity, ML/Haskell, Scheme, Ruby formal models data structures programming languages

300-level today (8 required courses) discrete structures boolean algebra, gates, binary numbers, finite automata, ALUs formal models data structures programming languages digital design

300-level today (8 required courses) discrete structures C, tools, “ethics”, everything else formal models data structures programming languages digital design “303”

300-level today (8 required courses) discrete structures assembly programming, CPU design, caching, pipelining formal models data structures programming languages digital design “303” architecture

300-level today (8 required courses) discrete structures probability distributions, regression, … formal models data structures programming languages digital design “303” architecturestatistics

Many ideas forming A new large, broad committee with many possibilities –Reduce redundancy (finite automata, probability) –Most formal automata to 400-level? –PL to 400-level, replaced with functional-programming basics, more modern programming, and a software project? –More focus on using data structures? –More focus on “big data”? –Bring statistics “in house”? (course is widely disliked) –Part of 303 to 1-credit labs taught by students? –… discrete structures formal models data structures programming languages digital design “303” architecturestatistics

Outline Overview of current program –Lots of good news –But room to modernize Near-term goals: 300-level Longer-term possibilities: 400- and 500-level Questions for you

400-level Many courses, with varied enrollment (biased by 300 level) –O/S: 75-90% –Databases: 55-75% –Compilers: 30-55% –Graphics: 30-60% –Algorithms: 40-60% –Theory of computation: 15-25% –Embedded systems: 20-25% –Architecture: 5-10% “Flat” –No time for follow-on courses Ideally 5 th -year Master’s helps But only if funded at level to create new courses –CS degree especially is “take 4 or 5 courses”

400-level possibilities “Tracks”? –Just guidance and a credential? –Or more specialized degrees? Better coordination for double-majors? Minors? Focus on Master’s level?

Outline Overview of current program –Lots of good news –But room to modernize Near-term goals: 300-level Longer-term possibilities: 400- and 500-level Questions for you

Your ideas, please 300-level: 1.How can our “core curriculum” better prepare our students? –Senior-level, grad school, industry, double-majors, … 2.How does our “core curriculum” differ from our peers / “the field”? 3.How can a core-curriculum revision succeed? –Pedagogically and diplomatically 4.Does computer science still have a core? 400-level: 5.Is allowing earlier/deeper specialization a good goal? 6.If so, how do we start to restructure? Generally: 7.Have we chosen good areas for improvement? 8.What are our blind spots (questions not asked)?