Software Engineering Education During the 21st Century

1
Software Engineering Education During the 21st
Century

• Dick B. Simmons, PhD, P.E.
• Texas AM University
• College Station, TX 77843-3112
• simmons_at_cs.tamu.edu

2
ABET Accredited Programs in 2004

• Computer Science 187
• Computer Engineering 154
• Software Engineering 4
• Information Systems 7

3
Students Saying NO to Computer Science in USA

• MIT EECS students
• 385 in 2002
• 240 in 2003
• 200 in 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 2000-2001
• 118 in 2003-2004

4
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

5
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

6
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

7
SE Education Trends for the 21st 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.

8
SE Education Trends for the 21st Century
(Continued)

• 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.