CRA-E White Paper Creating Environments for Computational Researcher Education August 9, 2010 Committee Members Andy van Dam, Brown (chair) Jim Foley, Georgia Tech John Guttag, MIT Pat Hanrahan, Stanford Chris Johnson, University of Utah Randy Katz, UC Berkeley Henry Kelly, DOE (formerly FAS) Peter Lee, DARPA and CMU David Shaw, D.E. Shaw Research Acknowledgements Thanks to the CRA-E committee members, who provided lively, provocative, and generative ideas during the four meetings. Thanks to Jeannette Wing, Lynn Andrea Stein, and Ed Fox for detailed and relevant reviews that helped refine and shape the raw material of the report. Thanks to CRA's Andrew Bernat for support, patience, and timely suggestions. Thanks to Rosemary Michelle Simpson, who pulled it all together and uncovered the patterns lurking in the mass of material. COMPUTING RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 1828 L Street, NW Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036-4632 Email:
[email protected] Tel: 202-234-2111 Fax: 202-667-1066 URL: http://www.cra.org Copyright 2010 by the Computing Research Association. Permission is granted to reproduce the contents provided that such production is not for profit and credit is given to the source. 8/9/10 2 CRA-E White Paper: Creating Environments for Computational Researcher Education Table of Contents Executive Summary - 5 Introduction - 9 Recommendations - 17 Computationally-Oriented Foundations - 17 1. Introductory Courses - addressing a broad range of student interests - 17 Refactoring Computer Science Curricula - 24 2. Core/Foundation for All Computer Science Graduates - lean core with focus on enduring concepts, techniques, and skills - 25 3. Specialization: Tracks, Threads, and Vectors - flexible approaches to gaining understanding and skills - 34 4.