Re: Use of CAS in introductory science&engineering courses
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg61623] Re: Use of CAS in introductory science&engineering courses
- From: Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 01:44:04 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: University of California, Berkeley
- References: <djfnco$avq$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
carlos at colorado.edu wrote: > There seem to be some confusion in the "Language versus > Library" debate as regards the proper mix of "computer science" > versus "applied mathematics" in introductory undergraduate > courses. In my opinion some of the confusion has historical roots. > > In the US, computer science (CS) departments did not exist as > individual entities before 1965. (The 1st was established by George > Forsythe at Stanford, if I remember correctly). The first Department of Computer Sciences in the United States was established at Purdue University in October 1962 according to http://www.cs.purdue.edu/history/history.html At creation time they > were often spawned from one of two sources: > > Math department (-> CS becomes part of Arts & Sciences) > EE department (-> CS becomes part of Engineering) > > If spawned from Math, the original CS tended to have a strong > applied-math + numerical analysis core. Not my impression. I think that ones originating from math tended to have a strong abstract math flavor, e.g. abstract families of (formal) languages, automata theory, theory of computability. Numerical analysis contributes but is not a focus. Applications (e.g. applied physics) is small. UC Berkeley's computer science (in the College of Letters and Sciences) started that way. If from EE, they tended to be > "computer engineering" and hardware oriented. > UC Berkeley had one of those, too, until they merged in about 1972, and EE&CS became one department. The EE contribution included things like "systems" and "optimization" > This is an unstable stage. It is essential part of human > nature to try to establish an identity. As a consequence, > CS departments have gradually focused on software: languages, > networks, databases, AI, interfaces, etc., as their core mission. > > The result has been a "reverse migration". Math-oriented academic > types have found more hospitable homes in science or applied math > departments. For example at Colorado-Boulder a Program in Applied > Mathematics was created in the late 1980s; as of now this is a > department in its own, separate from Mathematics proper. > Hardware oriented types gravitated back to EE or kept joint > appointments. By now the reconfiguration is approaching > steady-state, as one can verify by reading faculty position > announcements in CS. > > Consequence: programming service courses taught by CS faculty to > lower division students in engineering and sciences tend to focus on > nuts-and-bolts languages. In our case, the favorites are C++ and Java > (Fortran disappeared around 1995, C around 2000). Focus is > programming, data structures and interfaces. Math is incidental; > algorithms are used only as examples. That is the way it is and > will be: wishful talk will not change human nature. I guess we are in agreement about this: Atica does not sell here. > > On the other hand, service courses offered by our Applied Math > (for example, the Calculus sequence) do use Mathematica and > similar high level tools in recitations and labs. For obvious reason: > they fit course objectives (=learning Math) better, and programming > becomes incidental. Learning Atica or mathematica is not usually a core objective in a calculus course. At UC Berkeley, the history of the calculus labs seems to be that if the instructor is a fan of some computer algebra system X, then that is used. The next year it is CAS Y, etc. For some schools the choice is made for a handheld graphing calculator. Given the kind of usage .. a few commands, a few plots, I suspect not much harm is done to most students.... since those who go on to programming (or have previous programming contact) will see other languages too. >
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