Focus on Undergraduate Computing Education

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Focus on Undergraduate Computing Education

• Harriet Taylor and Anita LaSalle
• National Science Foundation
• Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences
  and Engineering (CISE)

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Presentation Structure

• Background
• ICER workshops
• CPATH launch
• Purposes of meeting
• Feedback from group

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The world is experiencing a tectonic economic
shift in which an increasing number of jobs
require some understanding of science and
technology, and today, industries hungry for
science and technology workers compete with each
other for talent. When the nature of everyone
else's job changes, so do the jobs of the
scientist and engineer. Dr. Arden L. Bement,
Jr., Director of the National Science Foundation
November 9th, 2006
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Background

• Challenges to undergraduate computing education
• Fluctuating enrollments
• Multidisciplinary nature
• Industry needs
• Global economy
• Rapid pace of innovation
• Stuck in traditional models

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Crisis?

• Viability of discipline
• Departments and faculty threatened
• Not simply tweaking curriculum or small changes
• Many potential long term visions
• Move towards more positive future for
  undergraduate computing education

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ICER Workshops

• Integrated Computing Education and Research
  (ICER)
• Fall 2005 Spring 2006
• 4 regional workshops
• Community input
• Critical needs identified

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ICER Results

• Major initiatives with national vision
• Curriculum/pedagogy/community engagement/computing
  core
• Infrastructure/organization/administration
• Industry needs and collaboration
• Image of CS
• K-12 concerns
• Leadership/community building
• Blurring traditional boundaries

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CPATH Initiative

• CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate
  Computing EducationLaunched September 2006

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CPATH Motivations

• CISE leadership
• Public mandate
• Set the stage for 10 years in the future
• Focus on undergraduate computing education

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CPATH Vision

• Radically different for CISE and NSF
• Move away from incremental changes
• 10 year vision
• NSF leadership
• Community activism

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Purpose of Town Hall Meeting

• For NSF program directors
• Community input
• Broader view in context of your area of interest
• Insights into CPATH for prospective PIs
• Interaction with a concerned and energized group
• Kick off undergraduate computing education
  transition

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Goals for Participants

• Information
• Alliance building and networking
• Roles as ambassadors
• Champions of institutional or community teams
• CDEF Fellows
• Great CPATH proposals that move the field forward

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Lets hear from you

• Joseph Urban will lead a general discussion
  about undergraduate computing education