The elephant in the room: who will take care of the code?

ABSTRACT

Something extraordinarily strange is going on in the computer industry. Despite the widespread availability of jobs, the challenging and exciting nature of the work, and the impressive earning potential of workers, the (industry is experiencing a massive decline in the number of new recruits. Universities and companies alike are starting to wonder: where did all the warm bodies go? Numbers from the US are showing declines upwards of 20%, and across North America it is not uncommon to find decreases in students applying to computer science post-secondary programmes that double that. It appears that a dearth of highly-trained professionals is looming, which is bound to negatively impact future advances in computer technology and ultimately threaten major economies. Given the current crisis, many groups are addressing the issue, with varying approaches and perspectives. The film "The Elephant in the Room: Who Will Take Care of the Code?", exposes the symptoms of this problem and examines some of the current solutions. In particular, this film profiles efforts at the University of Victoria in the CScIDE Computer Science Initiatives for Diversity and Equity research group and their experiements introducing programming concepts to children in grades two through seven.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.m MISCELLANEOUS

General Terms:
Human Factors

Keywords:
children and computer science, future of the computer industry, women in computer science