Published: November 2013, Issue: Vol. 25/No.10, Download as PDF
Archive of articles published in the November 2013, Vol. 25/No.10 issue.
The Education Committee of the Computing Research Association (CRA-E) has launched its website: http://www.cra.org/crae. CRA-E’s mission is to address society’s need for a continuous supply of talented and well-educated computing researchers by providing resources to inform, assist, and guide the computing community.
We asked 161 college graduates who had earned a B.S. in computing to think about activities they wished they had participated in during their undergraduate career, but had not. Then, we asked “what prevented you from participating in those activities?” As seen from the graphic above, the most prominent hindrance to participating in activities was Time. This finding highlights the time-constraining nature of the undergraduate experience, particularly among computing students.
Startup non-profit Code.org is working to make inroads into one of the most gaping holes in education. Out of all students taking advanced math and science courses at the K-12 level, only two percent are studying computer science, despite the fact that over half of all STEM jobs are in computing. Code.org founders, tech entrepreneurs Ali and Hadi Partovi, saw something wrong with this picture. The organization’s first project, a short film on the importance of learning computer programming, went viral. Now, Code.org is advancing with long-term policy and education initiatives to bring computer science to all K-12 schools — and a campaign this December to get 10 million students to try it out.
On September 18, more than 30 researchers from across the country flew to Washington, DC to meet with members of their state’s congressional delegations, talk about work going on in their institutions, and help make the case for the federal investment in research.
Recently, ScienceCareers named “Three Can’t Miss Science Careers,” and Ph.D. computer scientist was on the list along with geoscientist, and physician scientist. The article identified these fields in which a degree “virtually guarantees solid career prospects” and explored recent hiring and salary trends.
Microsoft Research Connections Computer Science—in conjunction with the Research in Software Engineering Group, the Sensing and Energy Research Group, and Global Foundation Services—is pleased to invite applications for Microsoft Research Awards from the Software Engineering Innovation Foundation for 2014 (SEIF 2014). SEIF 2014 follows four successful years of SEIF Awards involving 32 successful principal investigators.
