Next week we'll be celebrating Computer Science Education Week. SAS is a partner in this event, which makes complete sense because we have a vested interest in creating more computer scientists. After all, SAS does employ a lot of them.
When I was enrolled in a computer science program (sometime after punched cards but well before USB drives), the program was notorious for its attrition rate. Hundreds of incoming freshmen would declare Computer Science as their major, only to have most of them drop out in the second or third year. I don't think it was due to the difficulty (although of course it was a challenging program); I think that the work of designing and writing computer programs was different than many people expected.
The idea of teaching a computer to do work for you is compelling, but it does require a different mindset. Or it did, back then. Now we have higher-level languages that allow to you approach a business or science problem without having to think completely like the computer.
Programming languages and computer architecture change at a faster rate than the tools associated with most other professions. Therefore, a successful computer science education will prepare you with not only solid problem solving skills, but will instill the ability to learn new tools and approaches that allow you to practice those skills in a changing world.
Why Computer Science? (Because STEM is cool! Watch the video...) According to the CSEdWeek.org folks, computer science education is essential to:
- Expose students to critical thinking and problem solving.
- Instill understanding of computational thinking for success in the digital age.
- Train students for computing careers that are exciting, plentiful and financially rewarding.
- Prepare students to tackle the world’s most challenging problems.
Learn more at www.CSEdWeek.org.
3 Comments
I think one reason people get disillusioned with computer science is that it is not nearly like what you see in the movies. Well, it is, but they show people working on a problem at 10 a.m. and then 30 seconds later it's 3 a.m. the next day and they are surrounded by empty pizza boxes and coffee cups. In real life, you actually have to WORK those hours from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. Also, most of that 15 hours is not spent writing brilliant stuff but looking at your log and saying S#@! I left a semi-colon off, or finding where you misspelled a variable name, or remembering that you should have used &&var instead of &var or ....
And swearing.
The rocket scientist reading over my shoulder adds, "And you get tired of eating pizza"
Hi,
Today time is computer time.So all people gain the computer knowedge is very important.I think one reason people get disillusioned with computer science is that it is not nearly like what you see in the picture.But in this article auther want to say,all people computerknowledge is very imp.
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