CS1 and CS2 (panel session): foundations of computer science and discrete mathematics

  • Authors:

  • Doug Baldwin;Carl H. Smith;Peter B. Hendersen;Venu Vadisigi;D. S. Tomer

  • Affiliations:

  • State University of New York;University of Maryland;State University of New York;Southern Polytechnic State University;University of Central Arkansas

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the thirty-first SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

Over a period of thirty years there have been many curriculum reforms in the Undergraduate Computer Science curriculum. The ACM/IEEE-CS task force is currently working on the Curriculum 2001. In this struggle to define and develop this dynamic field of computer science, we have the opportunity to identify the foundations and related concepts of mathematics we would like to see in the new CS curriculum and introduce these in CS1 and CS2. Many standard topics of discrete mathematics can encourage the use of mathematical thinking when taught along with the CS courses. The more complex foundations and other theoretical topics may be introduced later in the curriculum. This session will present some of the views and examples in this direction. Our goal is not to eliminate the need of discrete math but to integrate it into the basics of CS so that the student will experience mathematical reasoning in the early stages of the development of CS topics. Currently discrete math is taught as one of the early math requirements and many students do not see the relationship between the programming concepts and these mathematical concepts. An early blend of these ideas of will provide a richer experience to CS majors and the new topics can be learned more quickly if the underlying theoretical concepts are well understood. The programming languages of choice can be introduced in separate laboratory components taken parallel to CS1 and CS2.We hope that we all can agree that CS is not just programming and we have a new discipline that must develop its basic theory rather than depending on other disciplines to do it for us. Someday, the courses we know now as CS1 and CS2 maybe known as University Computing I and II as we now have in some of the other sciences.