Georgia Tech's 'new face of computing'

Georgia Tech's 'new face of computing'

Former Hewlett-Packard exec Rich DeMillo has turned the College of Computing curriculum away from traditional areas.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/0219bizgatech.html?cxntnid=biz022006e

 

Interesting stuff. I'll be very curious how this plays out long-term. My big concern is that GTech will start churning out students who more closely resemble business students than programmers. They will know buzz words and industry trends and "global awareness", without knowing any nuts-and-bolts programming. While this closely matches much of the hiring buzz in IT (the demand for "analysts" rather than "programmers"), I'm not at all certain it's ultimately the most productive choice.

I make the statement based on two observations -

1) Most "analyst" types (I'm using analyst as a blanket for any IT worker who is not primarily a programmer/system admin/DBA/network admin type) are only useful after they have real industry experience. The best analsysts are those that have learned the lessons of both successful and failed projects. I'm not sure you can fully teach a 22-year-old how to fill these non-programming roles.

2) You still need people who can program. Yes, a lot of programming is moving offshore. But Google continues to hire great coders. There are thousands of small software shops that need good coders. Will the revamped GTech "computer scientists" be able to get hired at Google with their de-emphasized programming curriculum? I suspect that Google has a bias towards those who know algorithmic analysis rather than "global awareness".

Of course there is potentially room for both approaches. Between CS, Software Engineering, CIS, and IT style degrees, you should be able to offer a full range of programming-centric or more business-centric offerings.

 

I largely agree - there was recently an article re: the jump in US CS grads.

OTOH, there are quite a few people yearning for the "glory days" of the late 90's - those days are gone and they aren't coming back. IT is a very dynamic field - and being flexible is a prerequiste for long-term success.