Ivan Luković, University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences 13th Workshop DAAD Present and future of Computer Science & Software Engineering in

Ivan Luković,University of Novi Sad,Faculty of Technical Sciences

13th Workshop DAAD

Present and future of Computer Science & Software Engineering in Academy: Should we be more interdisciplinary

profiled?

JCSE W-2013 / Ivan Luković Bansko, 26 – 31. 8. 2013.

Agenda

• Motivation• Current state: Example of UNS• Industry: Requirements and offers• Information Engineering• Some references• Final words

JCSE W-2013 / Ivan Luković Bansko, 26 – 31. 8. 2013. 2 / 32

Motivation

• Always hot issues for: – Computer Science & – Informatics & – Software Engineering

• In what extent is it:– "self-contained", interdisciplinary oriented, or applied?

• What is a level of overlapping with other disciplines?

• How to constitute high quality study programs– to meet the balance between two extremes– to satisfy current and future needs of industry


Motivation

• A brief and relatively short history (in the region)– 1970's – some courses in other study programs

(Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Economics & Business)

– 1980's – profiled modules (clusters of courses) in other study programs

– late 1980's to 1990's – profiled study programs in CS&I, CE, or SE

– late 1990's to 2000's – profiled faculties or departments in CS&I, CE, SE, or IT• also, with the internationally profiled body of knowledge of

CS&I, CE and SE


Motivation

• A brief and relatively short history (in the region)

• Predominant trends in the last 40 years– from CS&I hosted in other study programs to the

distinctive CS&I– great organizational and professional efforts to

establish an independent discipline• with an evident and long lasting war carried out • to prove the others that CS&I or SE is not

a derivate of Mathematics or Electrical Engineering• and latter on, enjoining a happiness of a war winner


Motivation

• A brief and relatively short history (in the region)

• Outcomes– PROS: having CS&I as a self-contained discipline

• very nice, finally we have a recognized profession

– CONTRAS: falling in a pitfall of a war winner• enjoy your win, be happy, and change practically nothing• fill yourself comfortable in your "small", "warm" and "self-

contained" world• further derivate your new CS&I or SE

courses and don't worry, everything will be fine


Motivation

• Open questions (for now and future) – Does the industry need only such CS&I or SE

study programs?• It is not a question for now, but also for the next 10 or more

years

– In reality, do we have victims of such kind of acting?• What about the interdisciplinary orientation of CS&I or SE

study programs?• Is the interdisciplinary orientation mostly sacrificed?

– Do we act to other professions in a way that they acted to CS&I in 1980-1990s?• Let's run all CS&I courses the first, and then allow others

to come at the end

– Do we have a strategy for the next 10 or more years?


Agenda



Current state: Example of UNS

• Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTS)– big explosion in the latest round of accreditation

process, carried out in 2012– in total, 89 study programs at all levels, bringing about

5000 courses• classical disciplines, as well as many kinds of derivatives



• Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTS)– a lot of study programs encompassing CS&I or SE

disciplines, in more or less extent, all 4 + 1• wishing to be more or less applied• even more than before 2012• typically non-uniform: without a common framework shared

by various programs



• Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTS)– Main study programs covering CS&I, CE, or SE in

more or less extent• Computing and Control• Software Engineering and Information Technologies• Power Systems' Software Engineering• Industrial Engineering, Module: Information Systems• Management in Engineering, Module: Information Systems• Geodesy and Geomatics• Animation in Engineering• Graphical Engineering and Design• Mechatronics• Power Systems, Electronics and Telecommunications• Measurement and Regulation



• Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTS)– Some reasons for such explosion

• Financing system of high education in Serbia: – More students + More classes = More money

• A trend of creation of "self-contained" disciplines in an already established organization structure

– "Let me completely control my customized study program by myself, since it guarantees that I will survive."

– "Let me even cover almost the whole study program by myself, since I teach the best, and I can do it better than all the others."

• A way to raise popularity on the high education market – some traditional disciplines have become unpopular (classical

Mechanical Engineering is a typical example) – it is not easy to survive without having enough good students



• Faculty of Science– More coherent in term of SC&I study programs

• Informatics (B.Sc.), with M.Sc. in Informatics and M.Sc. in IT• Applied Mathematics (B.Sc., M.Sc.)

– with elective courses in Business Mathematics

• Faculty of Economics, Subotica– No dedicated SC&I study program– Economics, Module: Information Systems

• strong approach in Business, Management• with courses in applied mathematics in business

• Some others exists, too


Agenda



Industry: Requirements and offers

• What are the industry needs today / in future?• Current state

– Well-developed IT HR market (NA, EU, Australia)• wider possibilities for more specialized jobs• strong fitting between employees' qualifications and the

complexity and requirements of assigned jobs

– Under-developed IT HR market in the region• with a more or less noticeable development progress• general-purpose IT professionals are always welcomed –

better chances to survive in the market• not rarely, formally overqualified people perform less-

demanding jobs– Poor organizations always pay a higher price!



• What are the industry needs today / in future?• A common property of

– Well-developed IT HR market– Under-developed / developing IT HR market

As a rule, it seems that interdisciplinary oriented professionals are always welcomed and

better positioned!



• Absence of almost any high education strategy leads to:

• total leaving the academy to the operational market laws

• paradox– We incline to creating more "self-contained"

courses, and consequently almost "pure" professionals• the culture of interdisciplinary orientation in academy is

usually poorly developed

– However, interdisciplinary oriented professionals are better positioned



• One more paradox experienced– Many students and even lecturers believe that IT

employers will give a job, project or money to CS&I professionals for the following reasons:• they require high-educated or well-skilled HR

– for example, because "we are particularly good programmers, or software engineers"

• "we can resolve them a problem that they currently have"



• One more paradox experienced– However, the reality is often much different

• the employers search for those professionals that are capable of recognizing and addressing exactly their complex requirements or wishes

• they need a complete, "packed", and optimized solution– as fast as possible, as cheap as possible– without any care if you are a perfect mathematician,

programmer or economist



• Personally experienced examples– Predominantly CS&I or SE oriented study

programs• FTS: Computing and Control, Faculty of Science: Informatics

– Majority of students usually • prefer programming and technologies

– "Just give me one more programming environment or technology to learn if you wish to make me happy."

– "For what it is, it doesn't matter."• escape from any kind of mathematics, if possible

– "Please, do not make me loosing my time with such things."• naturally hate management

– "It is really something boring and less worthy, isn't it?"



• Personally experienced examples– Predominantly mathematically oriented study

programs• Faculty of Science: Applied Mathematics, FTS: Mathematics

in Engineering (M.Sc.)

– Majority of students usually • prefer a little bit programming and technologies

– however there is no enough courses covering such knowledge– often absence of recognition, for what it may be applicable

• they can perfectly prove or solve in mathematics whatever you want

– however, without any recognition if it is applicable, or not» "Please, do not make me thinking about such trivial things,

such as applications in practice."• do not recognize the importance of management



• Personally experienced examples– Predominantly management oriented study

programs• Faculty of Economics, FTS: Management in Engineering,

Industrial Engineering – (Some kind of exception is Module: Information Systems)

– Majority of students usually • recognize management as a crucial, fundamental discipline

– "Organization science is a science on the top of all sciences."• recognize mathematics, programming and IT as

important things– however, they believe that it is too hard for them to learn such

kind of knowledge, and even more unnecessary– "Since, we will always engage enough number of good

professionals in the area, as needed."



• Open questions– In such circumstances, who will maintain the

"interfaces" between various disciplines?– Therefore, we need to systematically educate

interdisciplinary oriented professionals• capable of creating interconnections between various

disciplines• with a satisfactory deep level of knowledge of details

– Can high education in CS&I or SE address this issue successfully?

– Personal view: the best chances are for such orientation• still in the area of business and organization systems


Agenda



Information Engineering

• Goals– having a curriculum to cover body of knowledge

necessary to support information management in organization systems (business)• applicable in a wide variety of organizations (of any type)• covering wide range of aspects of information management

– typically required by many stakeholders• that will nurture both interdisciplinary and formal

approaches– typically expected formality: at the level of mathematical rigor,

whenever is possible



• Main principles– Abstraction and Formalization

• ability to understand and formalize application domain knowledge, problems, and requirements

• ability to create meta-models, languages, concepts, or any kind of formalisms necessary to provide modeling of any knowledge in systems being observed

– Quantification and Metrics• ability to quantify, measure, analyze, simulate, and optimize

anything that is required in any business, by comprehensive methods



• Main principles– Specification and Implementation

• ability to efficiently specify, develop, implement, and apply any software to address various information management requirements in business

– Communication skills• ability to successfully communicate and negotiate with other

professionals, having different levels and range of knowledge



• Body of Knowledge– a not necessarily complete list of required knowledge– Computer Science, Informatics, and Software

Engineering• all core CS&I and SE disciplines, including Formal Methods,

Computational Intelligence, HCI, Information Systems

– Applied mathematics• Calculus, Discrete Mathematics, Algebra, Graph Theory,

Combinatorics, Logic, Probability and Statistics, Operational Research and Optimization Methods

– Economics, Management and Psychology• basics of: Design of Organization Systems, Management

Theory, Decision Theory, Econometrics, Business Intelligence, Industrial and Organizational Psychology


Agenda



Bansko, 26 – 31. 8. 2013.

Some references

• Group of authors: Informatics education: Europe cannot afford to miss the boat; Report of the joint Informatics Europe & ACM Europe Working Group on Informatics Education, April 2013.

• Wing M. J.: Computational Thinking; Communications of The ACM, 2006, Vol. 49, No. 3.

• Meyer Bertrand: Software Engineering in the Academy; IEEE Computer, 2001.

• Golshani F., Panchanathan S., and Friesen O.: A Logical Foundation for an Information Engineering Curriculum; 30th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, USA, 2000.

JCSE W-2013 / Ivan Luković 30 / 32

Agenda



Final words

• All of that being presented here is just my personal view or experience– with a goal to test the ideas about the future of CS&I

or SE academy education– how it is sustainable to create more interdisciplinary

oriented CS&I or SE curricula

• I do not take any responsibility for any damage that you may have, if you apply any of the viewpoints or ideas presented here in your own practice


Ivan Luković,University of Novi Sad,Faculty of Technical Sciences

13th Workshop DAAD

Present and future of Computer Science & Software Engineering in Academy: Should we be more interdisciplinary

profiled?End of P

resentation

JCSE W-2013 / Ivan Luković Bansko, 26 – 31. 8. 2013.

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Ivan Luković, University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences 13th Workshop DAAD Present and future of Computer Science & Software Engineering in