Transcript Passion, Beauty, Joy, and Awe Continued SIGCSE 2009 Chattanooga, Tennessee March 5, 2009 Eric Roberts Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University Past Chair of the ACM.

Passion, Beauty, Joy, and Awe Continued
SIGCSE 2009
Chattanooga, Tennessee
March 5, 2009
Eric Roberts
Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University
Past Chair of the ACM Education Board
In Our Last Episode . . .
That there is currently a crisis in computing education is not in doubt.
— McGettrick et al., SIGCSE 2007
• As everyone has now been aware for some time, computing
enrollments in the United States and most of Europe have
plummeted since 2001.
• This drop is of significant economic concern because those
same countries are training far fewer people than they need to
fill the available positions. In the United States, there are now
many more jobs in the IT sector than there were at the height
of the dot-com boom, with all projections pointing toward
continued growth.
What a Difference a Year Makes
That there is currently a crisis in computing education is not in doubt.
— McGettrick et al., SIGCSE 2007
• As everyone has now been aware for some time, computing
enrollments in the United States and most of Europe have
plummeted since 2001. Are enrollments still falling?
• This drop is of significant economic concern because those
same countries are training far fewer people than they need to
fill the available positions. In the United States, there are now
many more jobs in the IT sector than there were at the height
of the dot-com boom, with all projections pointing toward
continued growth. Is this still true after the meltdown?
• In Silicon Valley and at Stanford, the answers are clear:
– Demand for talented software developers is as high as it’s ever been.
– CS enrollments are skyrocketing, nearly erasing any previous loss.
projected
1985-86
1986-87
1987-88
1988-89
1989-90
1990-91
1991-92
1992-93
1993-94
1994-95
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
Introductory Course Enrollment Trends
1800
1600
All CS intro courses
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
CS106A (our CS1)
200
0
The Reasons for the Downturn
1. Fears about the long-term economic stability of
employment in the computing industry continue to have a
profound effect on student interest in our discipline.
2. The kind of exposure students get to computing at the
elementary and secondary level tends to push people
away from the discipline long before they reach the
university.
3. The image of work in the field—and, more importantly,
all too much of the reality of work in the field—is
unattractive to most students and no longer seems fun,
particularly in comparison to other opportunities that
bright students might pursue.
The Single Best Enrollment Predictor
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
500
400
2008
2006
2004
2002
2000
1998
1996
1994
1992
1990
1988
1986
1984
300
Butstatistical
A
the NASDAQ—along
analysis undertaken
with other
by mymarkets—has
colleague, Mehran
been declining
Sahami,
found that
steadily
over
88%
the of
lasttheyear.
1993-2003
If enrollments
enrollment
havevariance
historically
at Stanford
tracked
can high-tech
the
be explained
economy,
by the why
NASDAQ
are enrollments
average ofrising?
the preceding year.
There are Fewer Places to Go
We Still Have Work To Do
2. The kind of exposure students get to computing at the
elementary and secondary level tends to push people
away from the discipline long before they reach the
university.
3. The image of work in the field—and, more importantly,
all too much of the reality of work in the field—is
unattractive to most students and no longer seems fun,
particularly in comparison to other opportunities that
bright students might pursue.
Computing Faces Huge Challenges in Schools
• People who have software development skills command high salaries
and tend not to teach in schools.
• In many schools, computing courses are seen as vocational rather
than academic. The NCAA has eliminated academic credit for most
computing courses on this basis.
• Students who are heading toward top universities are advised to take
non-CS courses to bolster their admissions chances.
• Because schools are evaluated on how well their students perform in
math and science, many schools are shifting teachers away from
computer science toward these disciplines. Those disciplines,
moreover, often oppose expanding high-school computer science.
• Administrators find tools like PowerPoint more sexy and exciting. J
• Computing skills in general—and programming in particular—have
become much harder to teach.
• Teachers have few resources to keep abreast of changes in the field.
A Tale of Two Meetings
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .
—Charles Dickens
1. On September 13 and 14, Jan Cuny at the National Science
Foundation organized a meeting in Atlanta to think broadly
about new designs for the AP CS exam. This meeting,
which was chaired by Owen Astrachan, was one of the best
and most exciting meetings I have ever attended.
2. On the weekend of October 24, the College Board held the
AP Computer Science National College Faculty Colloquium
in Chicago to discuss the AP exam. I didn’t attend, but
reports from
from several
severalattendees
attendees—and
indicatedChris
that the
Stephenson
energy they
in
took with them fromthat
particular—indicated
the much
Atlantaof meeting
the energy
was they
lost after
took
Chicago.
from
the Atlanta meeting was lost after Chicago.
The Seven Big Ideas from the Atlanta Meeting
1. Computing is a creative activity that draws on a wide variety of
fields, such as natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, social
sciences, business, and the arts.
2. Abstraction is a central problem-solving technique in computer
science.
3. Algorithms are the essence of computational problem solving.
4. Writing programs is an integral part of solving computational
problems.
5. Theoretical and practical limitations affect what can be solved
computationally.
6. Computing enables and empowers innovation, exploration, and
creation of knowledge.
7. Computing drives and is driven by economics, culture, society
and ethics.
Jan Cuny’s “Clean Slate” Project
http://www.cra.org/Activities/summit/Cuny_A_Clean_Slate_Approach_to_High_School_CS.pdf
The End
AP CS Is Relatively Small
AP CS is Losing Ground
• The Computer Science exam is the only Advanced Placement
exam that has shown declining student numbers in recent years.
Eliminated in 2009
Degree Production vs. Job Openings
160,000
140,000
120,000
100,000
Ph.D.
Master’s
Bachelor’s
Projected job openings
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
Engineering
Physical Sciences
Biological Sciences
Computer Science
Sources: Adapted from a presentation by John Sargent, Senior Policy Analyst, Department of Commerce, at the
CRA Computing Research Summit, February 23, 2004. Original sources listed as National Science
Foundation/Division of Science Resources Statistics; degree data from Department of Education/National
Center for Education Statistics: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Completions Survey;
and NSF/SRS; Survey of Earned Doctorates; and Projected Annual Average Job Openings derived from
Department of Commerce (Office of Technology Policy) analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics 2002-2012
projections. See http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/content.php?cid=22.