Computer Science Careers and You with Dr. Danny Silver

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Computer Science Careers and Youwith Dr. Danny
Silver

• Jodrey School of Computer Science
• Come as a student leave as a Colleague

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Agenda

• Computer Science Its not just programming
• Careers and Career Pathways
• Acadia and Computer Science
• Q/A and Discussion
• Door prize and Close

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Introduction

• Our society depends upon computer systems and the
  people who develop and maintain them

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What is Computer Science?

• What is a computer scientist?
• Will I have to grow fuzzy hair?
• What does s/he do?
• Will I have to sit in front of
• a computer all day?
• What kind of people will I work with?
• Will I become a geek nerd?

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What is Computer Science?

• Study of information and computation
• Analysis, design and development of computer
  systems
• FUN COOL - EXCITING
• Cutting edge projects
• Exciting and talented people
• All over the world, in every sector
• Significant impact on society and our planet

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What is a Computer Scientist?

• Designs computers and the computer software
• Develops information technologies for
• application in business and industry
• Tackles complex problems
• Often working in groups
• Loves to innovate, create solutions
• Loves to learn changing , exciting field
• Good concentration and attention to detail
• Methodical, logical, good communication skills
• ? Project leadership and managerial positions

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A Few Definitions

• CS Computer Science
• IT Information Technology
• ICT Information and Communications
  Technology
• CIPS Canadian Information Processing Society
• ICTC Information and Communications
  Technology Council of Canada

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Why Study Computer Science?

• Computer Science
• is essential to Canadas future
• talent is in greater demand than we can supply
• leads to many careers
• is important intellectually
• supports and links to most other areas of study
• teaches problem solving
• builds teamwork and leadership skills
• develops life-long learning skills

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Motivation

• Computer Science is important intellectually
• Computer is comparable to writing /printing press
• Logical reasoning if-then structures
• Mathematics queues, cache, buffers
• Algorithmic thinking loops, subroutines,
  recursion
• Possible workings of the human mind
• Programming is to CS, as playing a piano is to
  music

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Motivation

• Computer Science supports and links to most other
  areas of study
• Progress in science lt--gt progress in technology
• Need for diverse abilities and perspectives
• CS and neuroscientists the brain
• Biologists and CS the Genome
• Meteorologists and CS weather prediction
• Future scientists require basic knowledge of CS

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Motivation

• Computer Science teaches problem solving
• Artists, designers, mathematicians, engineers,
  scientists work on solving problems
• AND computer scientists and software engineers
• CS studies the problem solving process itself
• Analysis and design are carefully reviewed
• Decomposition, abstraction, modular design
• Always new methods being investigated
• Cooperation and strong interpersonal skills are
  key

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Motivation

• Computer Science builds teamwork and leadership
  skills
• CS Team members must deal with egos, recognize
  weaknesses, share knowledge
• Students learn that your best friend can also be
  your strongest critic
• Learn to deal with mix of talents, finesse
  situations, influence change
• Plan, organize, control, lead complex projects
• Estimate and deal with risk

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Motivation

• Computer Science develops life-long learning
  skills Change is the only constant
• Promotes learning to learn
• Encourages on-going study and contribution
• Encourages oral and written communication skills
• Promotes sharing of ideas the Web

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Motivation
Computer Science and ICT are essential to
Canadas Future
Courtesy of Tom Turchet, ITAC
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ICT is Essential to Canadas Future

• ICT Sector 57.6 B
• 4.7 of GDP in 2007
• Up 4.4 from 2006
• Similar rise last 5 years

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High Demand for Skilled Labour
Unemployment ICT lt 3.5 National average gt
6.5.
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High Demand for Skilled Labour
(thousands)
Source Industry Canada website Quarterly
Monitor of the Canadian ICT Sector - Q2, 2008
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Outlook Even Higher Demand

• ICTC Outlook 2008-2015 Report (Oct 30, 2008)
• 125,000 to 175,000 ICT workers needed
• 15,795 to 22,345 per year
• 50 of hiring because of retirements
• 40 Fed. IT workers eligible for retirement in
  2008
• Half of all hires
• Systems analysts and software engineers
• Computer programmers and interactive media
  developers
• User support technicians

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Outlook Even Higher Demand

• From 2008 2015
• 7,200 university graduates per year needed (min.)
• 5,100 domestic capacity (BSc, BEng)
• 2,100 through immigration
• good news for students!

Workforce Requirements
Source ICTC 2008-15 Outlook October 2008
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Low Supply of TalentChange in Enrollment in
North America
Source CRA
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Motivation

• Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai Campus,
  Zhuhai, China
• 2009
• 15,000 students
• 2002
• A field

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Motivation

• Computer Science leads to many careers
• Vast majority of 21st century careers will
  require basic understanding of computer science
  methods
• Involves Technology, Processes, People , Projects
  
• We are training people for jobs that do not as
  yet exist
• They will likely require ICT Domain X expertise
  
• Bioinformatics - Health-Informatics
• GIS - Enviro-Informatics
• Interactive Digital Media - Genomics
• Information Science - Food Science

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A Landscape of Opportunity
Small Systems Admin. and Support
System Installation and Technical Support
CS Application area X Interdisciplinary
Specializations
Programming
Computer Science
Project Management
Programming
System Analyst/Design
Software Development
Technical Expert
Research
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A Landscape of Opportunity
Small Systems Admin. and Support
System Installation and Technical Support
CS Application area X Interdisciplinary
Specializations
Programming
Computer Science
Project Management
Programming
System Analyst/Design
Software Development
Technical Expert
Research
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Most needed ICT talent inCanada?
37 of sector jobs in 2008
(Data from Feb, 2006)
Source ICTC 2008-15 Outlook October 2008
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Where are the ICT Jobs in NS?
Source NSCC Survey of Nova Scotias Information
Technology Industry, June 2008
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An Optomistic Future in NS for IT!
Source NSCC Survey of Nova Scotias Information
Technology Industry, June 2008
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Nova Scotias best kept secret Entrepreneurial
opportunities here at home
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Nova Scotias best kept secret Entrepreneurial
opportunities here at home
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Nova Scotias best kept secret Entrepreneurial
opportunities here at home
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Nova Scotias best kept secret Entrepreneurial
opportunities here at home
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What are employers looking for?

• Core technical skills (CS, Datacom)
• Experience with domain applications and computing
  platforms
• Experience with specific business processes to
  which ICT is a solution
• Great communications
• Great team-work skills

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Educational Paths University CS -vs- Comm.
College IT

• University Degree
• Down Side Up Side
• Mathematics Jump start program
• 4 years to job 2 years then Co-op
• over life
• Hard work Best years of your life

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Educational PathsThe Interdisciplinary Advantage

• Degree programs in computer science are expanding
  to applied interdisciplinary areas
• Computer science Domain X knowledge
• Business Informatics CS Business
• Environmental Informatics CS Env. Science
• Bioinformatics CS Molecular Biology
• Health Informatics CS Health Care
• Geo-Informatics CS Geographic Sciences
• Forensic Informatics CS Forensic Sciences

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ICTC Awareness Campaign
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CACS/AIC
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Computer Science Teachers Assoc.
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Why Acadia University?

• Well-rounded education Social, personal and
  spiritual growth
• MacLeans Consistently one of top 3 in Canada
• Small class sizes
• Friendly and caring faculty and staff
• Current technology and educational programs
• Acadia Advantage 2.0
• Excellent student services centre
• Sport, artistic and cultural opportunities and
  events
• Friendships that last a lifetime

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Acadia Advantage 2.0

• Students will order and own one of four laptops
• Apple MacBook or the MacBook Pro
• Dell Latitude D630 or the M1530 XP
• Students will access Apple and Dell directly via
  on-line store to open before the end of exams in
  April
• Warranty - fully supported and serviced on campus
• Discount prices from what is otherwise available
• Laptop delivered direct from the manufacturer
• Access to range of Apple and Dell add-ons

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Jodrey School of Computer Science

• 40 years of computer science at Acadia (1968)
• Anniversary of the School Oct, 2008
• JSOCS has graduated
• 1434 Undergraduates
• 69 Masters
• 1503 Total

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40 Years of CS at Acadia

• 1968-69 D.Bonyun, IBM 1650, FORTRAN, 3 courses
• 1970-74 CS Dept, BSc or BA, A. Mufti, DEC-PDP
  11/45, BASIC, APL, COBOL, 16 courses
• 1975-77 I. Tomek, Dec-10, ALGOL, MSc in CS,
  microcomputers, 50k research grants, 24 courses
• 1978-79 JSOCS and BCS, Vax Mini, Simula,
  Computer Science Club, Cyber 171
• 1980-84 R.Giles, T.Muldner, Pascal, ALTOS,
  ONYX, TURBO-DOS, SPECTRIX multi-user micros,
  CYBER 815, 200k grants,
• 1985 2007 L. Oliver, A.Trudel, C. Wightman

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Why JSOCS?

• Faculty 7 full-time profs, 3 part-time
• Staff Admin. assistant, CS Lab Technician
• CIPS accredited degrees
• In class and Open Acadia cont ed. courses
• On-site free tutoring
• 100 Co-op placement over last 3 years
• Research experience as an undergraduate
• Many opportunities to work on campus

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Degrees Offered

• Four CIPS-accredited undergraduate degrees, all
  with Co-operative Education Option
• Bachelor of Computer Science
• Bachelor of Computer Science with Honours
• Bachelor of Computer Science with Specialization
• E-Commerce (2000)
• Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing (2009)
• Game Development (2010)

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Why JSOCS?

• World class facilities (network, servers, HPC)
• Home of NS Robot Programming Competition
• Student Computer Science Society
• Numerous faculty/student events
• Soccer, Broomball
• Volleyball, Curling
• Corporate duck race
• Video game competitions
• Ethnic pot-lucks
• Come as a student leave as a Colleague

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Labs and Research Groups

• Intelligent Information Technology Res. Lab
• Cooperative Intelligent Distributed Systems Group
  
• Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing Res. Group
• XML and Applications Group
• Web Census Research Group
• HCDI - Human Computer Dog Interface Group

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Mobile Computing

• Mobile Handheld Background
• 5 Billion text messages sent per day in 2009
• 6 Billion voice minutes used per day
• 1.2 Billion cell phones sold in 2009
• 14 of that market is smart phones
• 45 Million iPod Touch devices have been sold
• 1 Million iPads PER MONTH in 2010
• Over 400,000 apps in the Apple App store

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iAcadia An iPod App

• Developed by students
• Uses latest in HCI tech
• Combines I/O
• Text - Images
• Sound - Video
• All into the palm of your hand
• Tremendous new opportunities and challenges in
  interface design
• iAcadia video

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Game Development

• Developed in co-op with Game Industry in NS
• Courses in CS, Math, English, ??
• Finest usability lab east of Montreal
• Youtube video
• HB Studio video

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Artificial Intelligence

• Intelligent Agents
• Machine Learning and data mining
• User modeling and adaptive interfaces
• Adaptive systems
• Robotics
• IA video

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Tidal Power - Computer Science

• Data collection, analysis presentation
• Underwater monitoring
• Equipment performance
• Water temperature and flow rates
• Acoustic sensors, profiling software
• Artificial Intelligence
• Fish and marine mammal identification and
  tracking
• Machine learning systems trained to recognize
  moving objects from sonar data
• Monitor marine life interaction with the
  turbines
• Turn off the turbines if vessels, whales,
  dolphins, etc near turbines  

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Robot Programming Competitions

• HRC/FLL 20100
• 19 RPC teams, 26 FLL teams, 300 middle and high
  school students engaged in science, math,
  engineering
• Over 60,000 in external sponsorship
• Cooperative effort
• Acadia, NSCC, Michelin, NS Dept. Ed,
• and several other sponors
• Drumlin Height School team headed for FLL World
  Festival in Atlanta one of 84 teams out of
  9,000

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Q/A and Discussion
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Research Funding

• 7 of 10 faculty hold NSERC grants
• 10-15k per year
• Additional internal or external funding
• 2k - 100k per faculty member

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Current CS Students

• Cody Davison
• 2nd Year
• From Kingston, NS
• Curtis Taylor
• Final year,
• From Stouffville, ON
• Varsity football team

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Current CS Students

• Chris Fry
• Joseph ONeil
• Coady ??
• Dyllon Moseychuck
• Morgan ??
• Heather Myres (CSBio)
• Jana (CSBus)
• Curtis Taylor

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Alumni Words of Wisdom

• Chris Martel - Class of 08
• Programmer/Analyst
• Stats Canada
• Rob OQuinn Class of 05
• Senior Software Engineer
• HB Studios, Lunenburg

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Alumni Words of Wisdom

• Jim Diamond
• Sarah Perkins
• Roseann McClare
• Duane Currie
• Roxanne Lake
• Chris Kendricks
• Karen Wilder
• Rob OQuinn

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Lets Take a Break

• Network - Make a friend!
• Robot demonstrations

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Door Prize Draw
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Thank You for Coming!cs.acadiau.ca