New computer science chair pledges curricular overhaul
Computer Science professor Joe Warren (Sid ‘83) is trying to challenge the popular conception that most jobs in the computer science field are being outsourced.
As the man picked to take over the Computer Science department this July, he will lead a complete overhaul of the department’s curriculum in order to attract more students to the field.
Warren said he plans to revitalize the current computer science department, which has experienced a decrease in computer science majors over the past four years. In spring 2005, the computer science department boasted 72 computer science majors, compared to last fall’s 44. In spite of this decrease, however, Warren said he feels the department is still maintaining its quality.
“I think the department is very strong, and we have a good department in terms of research and in terms of the quality of the faculty, in terms of the Ph.D. students we turn out,” Warren said. “I think we also have a very good technical education for undergraduates…undergrads who come out of here are well prepared [for graduate school].”
Warren said he wants to spread the message that computer science is about more than just programming, since programming is a basic skill. Instead, he plans to institute more introductory classes with a focus on real-world applications to excite students previously undecided about majoring in computer science. He plans to have a class focusing on biological computation, which will put computer science in an applied context and integrate science.
Warren plans to revamp the undergraduate curriculum, which was set during the dot com boom of the late 1990s, when the number of computer science majors at Rice peaked.
“One of my mandates as chair is to look at the undergraduate curriculum and try to make it something that’s more exciting for students that are thinking about majoring in computer science,” Warren said. “We want to change the curriculum in such a way that students get exposed to that early on.”
Instead of merely focusing on building from the bottom up, Warren said future introductory courses should encompass the big picture, including courses focusing on themes in biological computation that join computer science with other fields of study.
Warren received bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, mathematical science and computer science at Rice, and a Ph.D. and master’s degree from Cornell University in computer science. Last semester, he taught COMP 260: Introduction to Computer Game Creation, which focused on building and designing computer games.
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