Computer Science major is hot again

[Andy Nguyen]

Very interesting read. Let me know what you think of this.

Lured by the prospect of high-salary, high-status jobs, college students are rushing in record numbers to study computer science.
Now, if only they could get a seat in class.
On campuses across the country, from major state universities to small private colleges, the surge in student demand for computer science courses is far outstripping the supply of professors, as the tech industry snaps up talent. At some schools, the shortage is creating an undergraduate divide of computing haves and have-nots — potentially narrowing a path for some minority and female students to an industry that has struggled with diversity.

The number of undergraduates majoring in the subject more than doubled from 2013 to 2017, to over 106,000, while tenure-track faculty ranks rose about 17 percent, according to the Computing Research Association, a nonprofit that gathers data from about 200 universities.

The Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting Into Class (Published 2019)

Student demand for computer science courses is outstripping the supply of professors, creating a student divide of computing haves and have-nots.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Daniel Duffy]

The main issue with CS education in my experience is that it tends not to interest itself with applications in the outside world and the lack of engineering principles (of course, the exception proves the rule..) A lot of topics in CS can be learned (by osmosis, if need be) "on the job". CS is not applied enough and putting more 'hard' maths into the curriculum does no harm.

It is more important to become a good programmer.
"Applied Computer Engineering" would cover the topics.

A continuing debate in the last 50 years is whether CS is a branch of mathematics. When I started all this stuff was called "Automation".

Demand for CS graduates is probably cyclical (anecdotal). Possible exception is the people who keep the computer network afloat.

Anyways, that's my take.

 

[Rekhit]

I don't know if this helps but sharing anyway.
I studied computer science from India and over here we have always had demand for computer engineers, but I guess the student size has unfortunately increased to accommodate the high number of students.
After reading the snippet which you have shared, I think this might just be the stop-gap arrangement which the educational institutions would adopt before incentivising professors in one way or other.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

After reading the snippet which you have shared, I think this might just be the stop-gap arrangement which the educational institutions would adopt before incentivising professors in one way or other.

Are you saying that there are cyclical ups and down (supply and demand) in the 'CS marketplace;'?

 

[Quasar Chunawala]

My two cents. In India, exams(in state uni's) have a straight jacket approach. The ability to apply the concepts that you learn is not tested adequately. The quality of faculty members is also an issue. Algorithms analysis and design is at the heart of CS, I personally feel, it should be introduced at the first year of undergrad and not be limited to just a semester's course. Projects on cool applications do a tonne of good! Moreover, exposure to math/physics would do no harm.

At the time of taking a course on algorithms, I never understood the big ideas in computer science, why a O(n^2) algorithm would beat a O(n^3) algorithm, even if you ran the O(n^2) algorithm on a slower digital watch and O(n^3) algorithm on a supercomputer.

Things are better though - competitive programming is being encouraged and that's awesome.

 

[Rekhit]

Are you saying that there are cyclical ups and down (supply and demand) in the 'CS marketplace;'?

I won't say it's cyclical but yes, over the past number of years, the number of student size has increased dramatically and considering AI is making its mark, there might come an inflection point in the near future where the demand might reduce. But that's just an opinion.