Recent Development of Computer Science Education in USA

Guest Editor: Yi Pan

(Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA)



Recent Development of Computer Science Education in USA

Guest Editor: Yi Pan

(Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA)

文章编号(Article Code)：1672-5913(2016)04-0001-02

Computer science（CS） is a discipline to study the scientific and practical approach to computation and its applications. As we enter into the Internet era, computers and the Internet have become intimate parts of our daily life. Due to its rapid development and wide applications recently, more CS graduates are needed in industries around the world. In USA, this situation is even more severe due to the rapid expansions of several big IT related companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM etc. Hence, how to effectively train a large number of high quality undergraduate students to become skillful CS workers in workforce upon their graduation is an important issue at many universities and colleges in USA. A student with a strong foundation in CS, i.e., being able to apply foundational concepts, methods and tools, is required to excel in an increasingly digital and computational world. On the other hand, practical skills such as programming skills are important for them to immediately play a role after hired by a company upon graduation. How to balance the teaching of theory and practical skills in CS education is a topic to discuss at many educational conferences. Many foundations have noticed these problems and sponsored a lot of programs to improve the CS education.For example, in order to address this shortfall of workforce and improve the CS education quality, US National Science Foundation has invested a lot of funding into several CS education programs such as new course development, innovative labware creation, online education, etc.

In this special section, six papers are selected to introduce the recent development of CS education in USA. Although they are a small sample of innovative ideas, the readers can get a taste of recent CS education in USA.

The first paper Undergraduate Education and Research in Sustainable Wireless Communication: An Experience of NSF REU Program by Shuhui Yang and Emily Hixon describes an NSF sponsored intensive nine-week program each summer (2015-2017, renewable) for undergraduate students and its outcomes and preliminary evaluation results.

The second paper Discrete Mathematics Education for Information Technology Students by Xubo Wang and Yingfeng Wang introduces tailoring topics according to students’ background and needs, and designing exercise to meet the course goals of the discrete mathematics course taught for IT major students.

In the third paper Cultivating Intelligence in Game Programming Course, Ziping Liu and Bidyut Gupta describe a redesigned game programming course which incorporates various AI topics in game programming.

In the fourth paper Implementing Internet of Things into Undergraduate Classes: Case Study of a Capstone Research Project, Jing (Selena) He, Amir Atabekovy, and Yi Pan report their experience of designing and implementing an Internet of Things (IoT)-based research project in a final year capstone project class at Kennesaw State University.

In the fifth paper Teaching of Data Communication: Fundamental and Timely, Ziping Liu andDana Schwieger present a new comprehensive design for a Data Communication and Computer Networking course with coursestructure, assignments and outcomes.

In the sixth paper Uncertainty Avoidance - A New Teaching/Learning Method for an Introductory Programming Course, Zhen Jiang introduces a new procedure for under-represented students to quickly learn the use of the decision structure in computer programming. The one-semester course allows students to build up programming skills gradually case by case and program by program. Improvement of student performance is shown through the new method.

I would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief of Computer Education, Ms. XI Chunyan for her guidance, encouragement and support. My big thank goes to Ms. PENG Yuanhong, the managing editor of Computer Education, for her patience, technical support, editing and help during the editing process of this special section. I hope the readers will enjoy reading these papers.

Dr. Yi Pan is a regents’ professor of computer science, an interim associate dean and chair of biology at Georgia State University, USA. He is also a visiting Changjiang Chair Professor at Central South University, China. Dr. Pan received his BE and ME degrees in computer engineering from Tsinghua University, China, in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and his PhD degree in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, in 1991. His profi le has been featured as a distinguished alumnus in both Tsinghua Alumni Newsletter and University of Pittsburgh CS Alumni Newsletter. Dr. Pan’s research interests include parallel and cloud computing, wireless networks, and bioinformatics. Dr. Pan has published more than 180 journal papers with over 60 papers published in various IEEE journals. In addition, he has published over 150 papers in refereed conferences. He has also coauthored/co-edited 40 books. His work has been cited more than 6 500 times. Dr. Pan has served as an editor-inchief or editorial board member for 15 journals including 7 IEEE Transactions. He is the recipient of many awards including IEEE Transactions Best Paper Award, several conference Best Paper Awards, IBM Faculty Award, JSPS Senior Invitation Fellowship, IEEE BIBE Outstanding Achievement Award, NSF Research Opportunity Award, and AFOSR Summer Faculty Research Fellowship. He has organized many international conferences and delivered keynote speeches at over 50 international conferences around the world.

yipan@gsu.edu.

中图分类号(CLC)：G642