Computer Science Core Curriculum And Mathematics

ABSTRACT

The history of computer science and of new areas of applicable mathematics are intimately related. Much of this common development is due to common developers. In the 1940's John von Neumann developed the concept and first implementation of a stored-program calculating machine. Thus von Neumann was the father of modern computer programming and, in a sense, the founder of computer architectture (2). He also was developer of the theory of games (14), a new mathematical subject that is both highly applicable and involves some of the purest of mathematics On a lower pedagogical level, we find the first simple widely used programming language and associated time-sharing system and the first textbook on finite mathematics also developed from one man, John Kemeny. Between his initial career as a brilliant logician and his current career as a university president, Kemeny championed the cause of finite mathematics in the undergraduate curriculum in the 1950's. He oversaw the future importance of finite math: logic, combinatorics, finite probability models, and linear programming. Shortly after his textbook, Introduction to Finite Mathematics, with L. Snell and G. Thompson appeared, Kemeny became involved in a project to make computers easy for average college students to use. The result was the language BASIC and one of the first successful time-sharing system.

REFERENCES

• 1: Richard H. Austing , Bruce H. Barnes , Gerald L. Engel, A survey of the literature in computer science education since curriculum '68, Communications of the ACM, v.20 n.1, p.13-21, Jan. 1977 [doi>10.1145/359367.359417]
• 2: A. Burkes, H. Goldstine, J. vonNeumann, "Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument", reprinted in The World of the Computer, ed. J. Diebold, Random House, New York, 1973.
• 3: Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, Undergraduate Mathematical Sciences Enrollments in Universities, Four-Year Colleges, and Two-Year Colleges, 1975-76, Washington, D.C., 1976.
• 4: Curriculum Committee in Computer Science, "Curriculum 68", Comm. A.C.M. 11 (1968), p. 151-197
• 5: Curriculum Committee in Computer Science, preliminary report on computer science curriculum revision, SIGCSE Bulletin, June, 1977.
• 6: Margaret E. Dexter , Margaret L. Rhoden , Jerry Sue Townsend, A discrete structures course for a small college, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.7 n.1, p.61-64, February 1975
• 7: Herman H. Goldstine, The computer from Pascal to von Neumann, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1980
• 8: IEEE Computer Society Curriculum Committee, A Curriculum in Computer Science and Engineering, Long Beach, Calif., January, 1977.
• 9: J. Kemeny, L. Snell, G. Thompson, Introduction to Finite Mathematics, Prentice-Hall, New York, 1957.
• 10: Mathematical Association of America's Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics, Pregraduate Training of Research Mathematicians, Berkeley, Calif., 1963.
• 11: Ronald E. Prather, Another look at the discrete structures course, ACM SIGCUE Outlook, v.10 n.SI, p.247-252, February 1976
• 12: J. Todd, "Numerical Analysis at the National Bureau of Standards", SIAM Review 17 (1975), p.361-370.
• 13: J. P. Tremblay , R. Manohar, A first course in discrete structures with applications to computer science, Proceedings of the fourth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, p.155-160, January 1974
• 14: J. vonNeumann, O. Morgenstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, Princeton Univ. Press, second edition, 1947

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

Additional Classification:
  G. Mathematics of Computing
  G.2 DISCRETE MATHEMATICS

General Terms:
Human Factors, Languages, Theory