Re:Yale Computer Science Dept overworked, understaffed
by SqMafia on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @12:46AM
(#5138286)
Yale CS alum here (DC 04). Yale unfortunately tends to be on the extreme side of theories and fundamentals. Having some more practical experience helps those theories and fundamentals sink in. For example, I didn't appreciate closures until I started programming professionally. It was a curiosity before that. The professors there sort of expect you to get that sort of experience on your own, which some students do get but it's really uneven.
Re:Yale Computer Science Dept overworked, understaffed
by kkwok on Thursday January 31, 2013 @12:34AM
(#5143661)
Davenport!
Re:Yale Computer Science Dept overworked, understaffed
by wmf on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @12:47AM
(#5138291)
So if enrollment for hard CS is off the charts and you don't have enough people to teach it... create more light CS classes to encourage broader enrollment?
Re:Yale Computer Science Dept overworked, understaffed
by gklitt on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @01:58AM
(#5138467)
Sorry, I realize my comment may have been a bit unclear.
My point is that Yale needs to recognize the general interest in CS, and do many complementary things to satisfy it, including both 1) creating more light CS classes, and 2) better funding the department. Taken together, these steps would go a long way towards catching up with Harvard and other institutions.
In my opinion, this whole issue has arisen because there is confusion about what "computer science" should be at a university. Theoretical computer science that professors do is a world away from the casual HTML/CSS development that many non-CS-majors want to dabble in after watching The Social Network. I think an excellent university should have instruction in both, and enough professors to strongly support the latter.
The Yale CS department, with good reason, does not want Yale to become a "Java school". (good background on the topic: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchool...). They want to focus on CS fundamentals, algorithms, and UNIX skills, which are timeless skills that can serve as a foundation for a career in computer science. This especially makes sense given the strength of the theoretical component of Yale's CS department, both now and historically. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Perlis) (http://www.macfound.org/fellows/877/)
But the university also needs to realize that having a more casual computer science class for non-majors, like Harvard's CS50, is an essential part of offering a liberal arts education in the modern world. There's a lot of student spirit and initiative here, such as awesome student-taught web dev courses (http://hackyale.com/) and student-organized talks and hackathons, but the university itself seems to be playing catch-up.