Computing as a discipline: preliminary report of the ACM task force on the core of computer science

• Main Authors: Denning, Peter, Comer, Douglas E., Gries, David, Mulder, Michael C., Tucker, Allen B., Turner, A. Joe, Young, Paul R.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Social and professional topics > Professional topics; Social and professional topics > Professional topics > Computing education > Computing education programs > Computer science education; Social and professional topics > Professional topics > Computing education > Model curricula; Social and professional topics > Professional topics > Computing profession > Computing organizations
• ISSN: 0097-8418
• DOI: 10.1145/52964.52975

It is ACM's 40th year and an old debate continues. Is computer science a science? An engineering discipline? Or merely a technology, an inventor and purveyor of computing commodities? What is the intellectual substance of the discipline? Is it lasting, or will it fade within a generation? Do core curricula in computer science and engineering accurately reflect the field? How can theory and lab work be integrated in a computing curriculum? We project an image of a technology-oriented discipline whose fundamentals are in mathematics and engineering - for example, we represent algorithms as the most basic objects of concern and programming and hardware design as the primary activities. The view that "computer science equals programming" is especially strong in our curricula: the introductory course is programming, the technology is in our core courses, and the science is in our electives. This view blocks progress in reorganizing the curriculum and turns away the best students, who want a greater challenge. It denies a coherent approach to making experimental and theoretical computer science integral and harmonious parts of a curriculum. Those in the discipline know that computer science encompasses far more than programming. The emphasis on programming arises from our long-standing belief that programming languages are excellent vehicles for gaining access to the rest of the field - but this belief limits out ability to speak about the discipline in terms that reveal its full breadth and richness. The field has matured enough that it is now possible to describe its intellectual substance in a new and compelling way. In the spring of 1986, ACM President Adele Goldberg and ACM Education Board Chairman Robert Aiken appointed this task force with the enthusiastic cooperation of the IEEE Computer Society. At the same time, the Computer Society formed a task force on computing laboratories with the enthusiastic cooperation of the ACM. The charter of the task force has three components: Present a description of computer science that emphasizes fundamental questions and significant accomplishments. Propose a new teaching paradigm for computer science that conforms to traditional scientific standards and harmoniously integrates theory and experimentation. Give at least one detailed example of a three-semester introductory course sequence in computer science based on the curriculum model and the disciplinary description. We immediately extended our task to encompass c