Industry Vs Curriculum Talk Mec

Computer Industry Needs

vs

Academia Curriculum

Talk at

Model Engineering College, Cochin

19 Mar 2009

Tej Arora

Founder

http://smartcrowds.com http://brandadda.com

Intro

Inspired by demand-supply imbalance for certain skillsets

Talk about General trends in the computer industry

Identify Concepts / Technologies in vogue

Identify “hot” skills

Make general recommendations to bridge the divide

Flavours of “Computing” field

As per ACM, there are 5 sub-disciplines

Computer Science (CS)‏

Computer Engineering (CE)‏

Information Systems (IS)‏

Information Technology (IT)‏

Software Engineering (SE) (modelling, process, evolution, quality..)‏

ACM reviews & recommends changes to the curiculla every 10 years, but frequency has increased lately

MEC's Context

CS : a mix of all 5 areas

EB : Primarily Electronics & Bio-Information-Technology, with some CS & CE

EC : Primarily Electronics, with some CS & CE

Electronics & Bio-Medical aspects outside the scope of this talk

Knowledge Areas (except SE)‏ Algorithms and Complexity Architecture and Organization Computational Science Discrete Structures Graphics and Visual Computing Human-Computer Interaction Information Management Intelligent Systems Net-Centric Computing Operating Systems Programming Fundamentals Programming Languages Social and Professional Issues Software Engineering Algorithms Circuits and Signals Computer Architecture and Organization Computer Networks Computer Systems Engineering Database Systems Digital Logic Digital Signal Processing Discrete Structures Electronics Embedded Systems Human-Computer Interaction Operating Systems Probability and Statistics Programming Fundamentals Social and Professional Issues Software Engineering VLSI Design and Fabrication Personal Productivity with IS Technology Fundamentals of Information Systems Electronic Business Strategy, Architecture and Design Information Systems Theory and Practice Information Technology Hardware and Systems Software Programming, Data, File and Object Structures Networks and Telecommunication Design Physical Design and Implementation with DBMS Physical Design and Implementation in Emerging Environments Project Management and Practice CS Human Computer Interaction Information Assurance and Security Information Management Information Technology Fundamentals Integrative Programming and Technologies Math and Statistics for IT Networking Platform Technologies Programming Fundamentals Social and Professional Issues System Integration & Architecture Systems Administration and Maintenance Web Systems and Technologies CE Knowledge Areas (except SE)‏ IT IS

Goals after Graduation

Higher studies in same field

Management studies

Job in same field, and no more studies

Job in same field, and then higher studies

Job in a different field

Goals keep changing!!!

Curriculum Design is very complex considering all of the above factors

but

It has to keep up with the times

Paradigm Shifts taking place

Everything is on the Network

The Browser is the Desktop

The Internet is the OS

The PC is mobile

The PC is the phone, tv, digital assistant, credit card, all rolled into one

Public Digital presence for everyone

Users want Bigger (movies), Faster, Everything (TV on mobile) and NOW!

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Trends in the Industry

Applied Security

Scalable Systems

Mobility Computing

Cloud Computing / Grid Computing

Massive-Scale Data Storage, Retrieval, Analysis

Mashup Applications

Social Programming

Live Streaming

SOA

SAAS

Software Release & Configuration Management

Performance Management

Programming Frameworks

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Dynamic/Scriptable Apps

User Interface/Experience is Sacred

BESIDES all the usual stuff that you learn

Bad News

The Trends are changing at a fast rate!!

Prominent Platforms / Technologies

Java camp

Mostly “enterprise” systems, but some some web-scale systems in Java

J2EE, JDBC, JSP, Servlet, EJB, Ant

Microsoft camp

Competes with Open Source camp, and Java camp

.NET, IIS, SQL Server, ASP, Visual Studio

Open Source camp

Generally platform-agnostic

1000's of useful tools, environments, OSs, Libraries..

Scripting

PHP, Ruby, Perl, Python

Tools

Eclipse, Ant, JUnit, PHPUnit

Frameworks / Environments

CMSs: Drupal, Joomla, ...

Struts

Rails

PHP.net

Tomcat, JBOSS

Other

XML, XSL

Javascript, CSS

Social Network APIs : Facebook (F8), OpenSocial

Key Shortage areas

Web Development

Javascript, CSS, HTML, AJAX

PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl

Flash

User Interface Design

Deep Java expertise

Deep .NET expertise

Some Misconceptions

“ I want to work in C/C++”

Language is just a tool, Focus on the PROBLEM not the language

e.g. An entire Ad Optimization product ($800M in flow-thru spend) is built in python

Applications are more and more dynamic, making it difficult to work with compiled languages

Note: Java isn't just a language, its a complete environment for applications

“ I am good on xyz OS”

OS is just an environment... Applications are getting more and more OS-agnostic

Recommendations

Review and modify curicullum every 3-5 years

Drive Open Source Participation

freshmeat.net (45,000 projects)‏

sourceforge.net (350,000 projects)‏

Promote Internships, students bring back industry experiences and help continuously bridge the gaps

Each student should be able to go deep in one “hot” industry area

Consider splitting coursework into

Core Courses : everyone has to enroll

Elective courses : can choose one of two tracks

Higher-Studies track : more theory & fundamentals (e.g. Automata Languages & Computation, Digital Signal/Image Processing)‏

Job-readiness track : project oriented, contemporary topics

OR Make the entire program suit one or the other path

Recommendations.. continued

Re-evaluate relevance of the following for CS

Physics, Chemistry, Basic civil & mechanical engineering, Engineering graphics, Basic electrical and electronics, Mechanical workshop, Logic Design, Electronic devices & circuits, Electronic circuits Lab, Digital Electronics Lab