Creating A Separate Introductory Computer Science Course For Engineers: An Experience In Moving From Java To Python
Jason B. Morrison, Terry Andres · Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) · 2012
The University of Manitoba (U. of M.) 2011-12 curriculum has a new introductory programming/computer science course specifically for current or future engineering students. This course focuses on teaching fundamentals of programming and computer science through mathematical computation using Python. The need for this course came from a grass roots movement by engineering professors to evaluate the previous course and provide direction and/or assistance to the department of computer science. The committee felt it was time to abandon Java as the introductory language for engineers. This talk discussesthe resulting course; the challenges in selecting the version of Python to use; and the difficulties and rewards of the change to a new and previously untaught language at the U. of M.