Mathematics in the curricula

ABSTRACT

Please take a few minutes to read Tony Ralston's excellent editorial "Do We Need ANY Mathematics in Computer Science Curricula?" in this issue of inroads. His editorial, in conjunction with another excellent document "Computing Curricula 2004 Overview Report" [1], are very timely. Tony talks about the historical perspective of mathematics in CS/SE education and direction in which we might head. The CC2004 Overview Report presents the current state of curricula for computing disciplines. Both complement and reinforce each other in several ways.

REFERENCES

• 1: Symposium program and announcements at http://www.intec.rug.ac.be/groupsites/formal/Sympos2004/Sympos2004.htm
• 2: C. Neville Dean , Raymond T. Boute, Teaching Formal Methods: CoLogNET/FME Symposium, TFM 2004, Ghent, Belgium, November 18-19, 2004. Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science), Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., Secaucus, NJ, 2004
• 3: Minutes of the subsequent FME meeting November 19 at http://www.fmeurope.org/manasite/mas/fme/meetingsitem/6 497--97.pdf
• 4: The Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula, IEEE Computer Society and ACM, Software Engineering 2004, Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering, August 23, 2004, (SEEK 2004) at http://sites.computer.org/ccse/SE2004Volume.pdf
• 5: Jon Barwise and John Etchmendy, Tarski's World (Center for the Study of Language and Information, 1993). See Tarski's World (Jon Barwise, John Etchemendy and Dave Barker-Plummer in collaboration with Albert Liu, Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), http://www-csli.stanford.edu/, Stanford University)
• 6: SPARKAda, Praxis Critical Systems Ltd. at http://www.praxis-cs.co.uk/sparkada/
• 7: Valerie J. Harvey and E. Gregory Holdan, "Insights from Teaching Discrete Mathematics in Information Systems Programs," Report for the Discussion Forum, CoLogNet/Formal Methods Europe Symposium on Teaching Formal Methods (TFM'04), November 19, 2004, Ghent, Belgium, at http://www.rmu.edu/OnTheMove/wpresearch.get_results?icalledby=wpresearch&ipage=60184&it=&iattr=&idisplay=D&ires_research_no=23132
• 8: Franz Lichtenberger, "Mathematics Education for Software Engineers: It should be radically different!" at http://www.math.uoc.gr/~ictm2/Proceedings/pap305.pdf

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.1 ADMINISTRATIVE DATA PROCESSING
      Subjects: Education

Additional Classification:
  G. Mathematics of Computing
  G.0 GENERAL

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Experimentation