The unsolved problem of computer science
Colin Day · ITNOW · 1974
Now computers are readily accessible to commerce and to education, there is a great need of people who know how to make the best use of them. University departments or commercial enterprises who need help in applying tne computer to their problems may naturally suppose that the information and skills required for this are imparted in most computer science courses. After all, if they wanted help with a mathematical or statistical problem, they would seek advice from those with degrees in such subjects, or from the departments themselves. In the same way they will assume that computer science departments will have the answer to their computing problems. This assumption may well be natural but it is, in my experience, usually wrong. As a member of a college computer centre it is possible to observe the functionings of various computer science departments (not just the local one) at fairly close quarters without being subjectively and personally involved. It is also possible to sample the results which such departments produce. From time to time when we need to take on extra staff, we have learnt to be wary of computer science graduates. We have employed some who have become valued members of the computer centre. However, many of these graduates who apply to us have not acquired fluency in any programming language. They have learnt much about the use of computers without having had more than a smattering of first-hand experience in the matter. The very courses which (one would assume) should convey to the students what computing is all about are apparently not doing so.