SIGCSE

Computer science as a discipline has come of age. In fact, as a human worker it could face retirement. Computer science is one of the few new disciplines that evolved and grew, searching and finding its place between other disciplines such as ...

In 1986 I went to the former Soviet Union for the first time. As it happened it was just three months after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I recall bringing a suitcase full of tuna fish, Spam (the old kind!) and crackers with me due to concerns about ...

The principles of good software development are improving. We have better answers today about how to develop more effective software then we did yesterday. We may not have complete answers about how to produce quality software but we are getting closer. ...

Teaching a group of freshmen (most of whom were not even born when the graphical user interface, with its mouse, were crated) about the developments that have occurred in our field can be rather daunting. They have no recollection of recent major ...

With software engineering (S. E.) now beginning to emerge as a distinct discipline, through initiatives such as the SWEBOK [1], the growth of undergraduate programmes in the U.S. [2] and collaborative efforts to offer programmes with breadth and depth [...

General Accreditation Criteria has been developed by the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of ABET, Inc. (SIGCSE Bulletin, December 2003) with the requirement that the Criteria will apply to all computing programs CAC evaluates. The Criteria is ...

Sally Fincher and Marian Petre have edited a book [1] aimed at computer scientists who are seeking to enter education research. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is a "how to" for education research, written by Fincher and Petre. The ...

During a recent semester, our department faculty had several discussions concerning our disappointment with our students' quality of work. Obviously, we agreed, this cohort of students was not working hard enough. Those of us teaching senior-level ...

At a basic level, learning requires physiological changes within students' heads, and education seeks to accomplish appropriate neurological changes effectively and efficiently. While schools and faculty cannot change physiology by themselves (thank ...

In December of 2003, I had the pleasure of participating in a discussion arranged by the staff of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Science regarding the impact of community colleges on the development of a technological workforce. ...

Invited Mike Huth, Imperial College London to be the guest editor for this column. What started as a simple idea evolved into a complete paper. I encourage you to read Mike's insightful article "Mathematics for the exploration of requirements" in this ...

The new challenge in this issue involves searching and optimization computations. The challenge is divided into two parts. The first part requires a search for an appropriate starting point of a circular drive through several gas stations. The second ...

Iremember way back in the old days, it was so easy to talk to other CSE people about CS1, since we basically all knew the plot of Cooper and Clancy's of Oh Pascal! I could talk about problems with "the var parameter lecture" and people pretty much knew ...

We introduce "algorithmic patterns" as entities that combine design elements and mathematical aspects. We regard algorithmic patterns as operational concepts, which are repeatedly utilized in algorithmic problem solving, and enfold computational ideas ...

The exploration of requirements is as complex as it is important in ensuring a successful software production and software life cycle. Increasingly, tool-support is available for aiding such explorations. We use a toy example and a case study of ...

This paper describes a new three-course introductory sequence. It design is based on the following three principles: 1) multiple first courses so students can enter the program in different ways, 2) eliminating any distinction between courses designed ...

This paper presents an application of active learning methodologies to teach cryptography and security protocols for undergraduate IT students. This course is offered to sophomore/junior students and is based upon the recently approved Computing ...

Making the leap from a problem statement to a solution program is a difficult task for novice programmers, even when they may have a sound knowledge of a particular programming language. To bridge this gap students are expected to implicitly build their ...

This paper describes our experiences in incorporating a brief discussion of simple computations powered by water into the standard Computer Organization course. We describe our goals in introducing this concept to students, our methods for doing so, and ...

This article continues our previous manuscript, published in the December 2003 issue of inroads. Both articles address the "Methods of Teaching Computer Science in the High School" course (hence forth abbreviated MTCS). In this article we present an ...

The paper presents a number of elementary examples which could be used to teach the concept of bit-level algorithm analysis to the undergraduate students in Computer Science. Each of these example algorithms take one or more integer(s) as input in order ...

This paper provides advice on how to create a first course on computer and network security. It is based on the author's teaching of such a course in a small college setting. The main emphasis is on a set of lab exercises that provide students with ...

This paper describes a simulation project concerning a modern traffic signal control system that was carried out by students in a computer organization course and in a subsequent independent research course. The overall project required both hardware ...

The Perform approach aims to improve the success rate of weak students in a first programming course. The approach, based on constructivism, takes a tight control on the mental model construction process in the weak students, and allows the students to ...

Arguably, many computer languages have more panache and less verbosity than COBOL; but none has greater potential to inculcate the habits and techniques of <u>advance</u> planning for such things as structure, the byte-length of variables representing ...

Alongside the widespread support for adopting object orientation there are reports on difficulties in learning object oriented programming and design. This indicates the need for refining the research on cognitive difficulties in a way that will offer ...

Many engineering capstone courses require senior design projects involving teamwork. Our department's curriculum engages industries to provide meaningful design projects for student teams in real-world settings. One project resulted in students gaining ...

Because they are sound, original, and provide a needed critical perspective, Jackson's ideas and methods deserve to be incorporated into - and can invigorate - the software engineering curriculum.

Computer programming students invariably fall into more than one bad habit. It can be extremely difficult to eradicate them (and many lecturers and professional programmers keep succumbing to them time and again). I wrote this when, in the days leading ...

Excel Grader is an automated grader for use by instructors in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Office application courses. Excel Grader performs static analysis on Microsoft Excel workbooks. The program compares a student workbook with the instructor's ...