MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-05-23 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Student Interest in Computer Science Plummets
|
TALK ABOUT RUBBER NECK
On Mon, 2005-05-23 at 12:35, Inker, Evan wrote:
> Student Interest in Computer Science Plummets
> Technology companies struggle to fill vacant positions
> http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i38/38a03101.htm
> By ANDREA L. FOSTER
>
> Students once saw computer-science classes as their ticket to wealth. Now,
> as more technology jobs are outsourced to other countries, such classes are
> seen as a path to unemployment.
>
> New data show students' interest in the discipline is in a free fall. The
> number of newly declared computer-science majors declined 32 percent from
> the fall of 2000 to the fall of 2004, according to a report released this
> month by the Computing Research Association, which represents computer
> scientists in industry and academe. Another survey, from the Higher
> Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles,
> shows that the number of incoming freshmen who expressed an interest in
> majoring in computer science has plummeted by 59 percent in the last four
> years.
>
> Students' waning enthusiasm for the field worries technology companies that
> must work harder to fill vacant positions, as well as researchers who need a
> steady supply of intellectual talent to fuel scientific breakthroughs.
> Computer scientists are already struggling to maintain basic research
> despite sharply reduced financial support from government agencies.
>
> Computer scientists say their ranks need to grow for them to tackle such
> challenges as protecting the country's financial, utility,
> telecommunications, transportation, and defense systems from terrorist
> attacks.
>
> In response, the National Science Foundation and some colleges are stepping
> up efforts to promote computer science -- especially to women and some
> minority groups, whose representation in the field is minuscule.
>
> "We may have to do a little bit of recruiting," says Stuart H. Zweben,
> author of the Computing Research Association report and a professor and
> chairman of the computer-science and engineering department at Ohio State
> University at Columbus, where the number of computer-science majors dropped
> 28 percent from the fall of 2001 to the fall of 2004.
>
> Why the Drain?
>
> Computer scientists and undergraduates blame the field's anemia mostly on
> news-media reports of technology jobs moving to developing countries, and on
> the bursting of the dot-com bubble. At the height of the Internet boom, in
> 2000, it was not uncommon to see computer-science classrooms filled to
> capacity. That fall the number of newly declared computer-science and
> computer-engineering majors reached a high of 23,416, compared with 15,950
> in 2004, according to the Computing Research Association.
>
> Some computer-science professors say that much of the news coverage is
> exaggerated, and that jobs in information technology remain plentiful. They
> point to a Commerce Department study that projects that 70.2 percent of all
> vacant positions in science and engineering between 2002 and 2012, or 1.6
> million jobs, will be in information technology.
>
> Edward D. Lazowska, a computer-science professor at the University of
> Washington, says computer-science graduates from his university are
> receiving multiple job offers. And Richard F. Rashid, senior vice president
> for Microsoft Research, says Microsoft has more jobs for computer-science
> graduates with bachelor's degrees than it can fill. The positions include
> developers and program managers. "If you can't fill positions in the United
> States, then you do need to look outside," says Mr. Rashid.
>
> But while high-end technology jobs in the United States may be abundant, the
> outsourcing of "low-end, routinized" information-technology jobs, including
> some low-level programming positions, is on the rise, according to John F.
> Sargent, a senior policy analyst at the Commerce Department's technology
> administration.
>
> He says the encouraging job figures that some scholars cite may be too
> sanguine. The Commerce Department data was released in March 2004 but
> collected in 2002 as companies were just starting to farm out much of their
> information-technology work overseas. What's more, the department's
> projected number of newly created information-technology jobs for the period
> from 2002 and 2012, 1.15-million, is about a million fewer than the
> department had projected three years earlier for roughly the same period.
>
> Students seem to be playing it safe.
>
> "People are loath to do computer science because they think, Well, gosh, my
> job will just get outsourced," says Kevin W. Decker, president of the
> computer-science club at Indiana University-Purdue University at
> Indianapolis. Mr. Decker is a junior majoring in computer science. The
> number of students pursuing bachelor's degrees in computer science at the
> university has dropped to 146, from 161 a year ago.
>
> Mr. Decker says he is not discouraged because he believes there always will
> be work available for technology innovators. Mr. Decker speaks glowingly of
> his job last summer at Apple Computer, where he helped the developers of
> Safari, a Web browser. "I realized that after I got out of school I wanted
> to ... lead a team of brilliant engineers, doing things that change the
> world."
>
> More Glamorous Fields
>
> In some cases, computer-savvy students are turning to more glamorous fields
> like bioinformatics and molecular biology, in which investigators are
> mapping the human genome and doing stem-cell research, says Min C. Zhang, a
> senior computer-science major at Dartmouth College. She says there were a
> lot more computer-science majors in the class of 2003 than in her own class,
> and among her friends in lower classes, some taking computer-science classes
> have decided to major in biochemistry, she says.
>
> Still others say the image of computer scientists as antisocial nerds turns
> off many students.
>
> "If you ask a kid to draw a caricature of what a computer scientist does,"
> says Mr. Lazowska, "it's some overweight, greasy male, hunched down in front
> of a terminal, in front of a workstation, in a little cubbyhole."
>
> Professors say the creation in the last five years of new degrees in
> information technology or information systems may also be offering
> more-attractive alternatives to computer science. Computer science focuses
> on how networks are engineered -- the theoretical aspects of computing --
> and on writing software, while information technology focuses on applied
> work, such as building Web sites, adapting systems to a business's needs,
> and maintaining networks.
>
> George Mason University started an information-technology program in the
> fall of 2002, and this year has 726 students in the program. The number
> keeps growing each year, with students particularly interested in
> computer-security courses, says Anne Marchant, an information-technology
> instructor at the university. Only 550 George Mason students are
> computer-science majors. A few years ago the department had about 800
> students who majored in the field.
>
> Ms. Marchant blames the shift partly on what she sees as students'
> deteriorating mathematics aptitude.
>
> "Information technology is the right home for an awful lot of students who
> do not have the math skills and do not really have the interest in becoming
> programmers," she says.
>
> Jesse J. Rangel, a senior at California State University at Bakersfield who
> is a computer-science major, says some of his classmates avoid computer
> science because it involves advanced mathematics and physics. "The sad fact
> is that many students are not up for the challenge," he says.
>
> Sounding the Alarm
>
> Microsoft's Mr. Rashid, a former computer-science professor at Carnegie
> Mellon University, and Bill Gates, the company's chairman and founder, were
> in Washington last month to sound the alarm to lawmakers and journalists
> about declining student interest in science and engineering in general and
> computer science in particular.
>
> "It's a major concern for us because we're a company that runs on people,"
> says Mr. Rashid. "Our hiring has continued to go up, but unfortunately what
> we're seeing right now is a decline in the potential supply."
>
> The Information Technology Association of America, which promotes the
> industry, this month started a program to prod colleges into better
> preparing students for industry jobs.
>
> Marjorie C. Bynum, a vice president of the association, says member
> companies are having trouble filling positions not only because fewer
> students are going into computer science, but also because many graduates
> lack "soft skills."
>
> "Many information-technology companies put a huge emphasis on skills like
> project management, interpersonal communication, and just overall business
> acumen," says Ms. Bynum. "Colleges and universities need to put more
> emphasis around that."
>
> Others are working to close a widening gender gap in the field.
>
> Women's interest in computer science fell 80 percent between 1998 and 2004,
> and only 0.3 percent of incoming freshmen women in 2004 expressed an
> interest in majoring in computer science, according to the Higher Education
> Research Institute.
>
> "Some of us are making a more concerted effort to attract a diverse set of
> people to our programs ... paying particular attention to women and students
> from other underrepresented groups," such as African-Americans and
> Hispanics, says Mr. Zweben.
>
> Last month, for example, an Ohio State computer-science instructor organized
> a regional conference on women and computing that attracted 100 female
> computer scientists in academe and industry.
>
> Students from 13 colleges in Michigan and Ohio made contact with each other
> and with women who hold management positions in technology companies.
>
> This spring the National Science Foundation started a program called
> Broadening Participation in Computing to increase the number and diversity
> of students receiving computer-science degrees. The foundation plans to
> award $14-million in the 2006 fiscal year to colleges or to partnerships of
> colleges and other institutions that are trying to recruit women, minority
> students, and people with disabilities into computer science.
>
> Janice E. Cuny, a computer-science professor at the University of Oregon who
> runs the NSF program, says that to deal with the shortage of women in
> computer science, colleges should recognize that women take a more practical
> approach to the field than men do.
>
> "Women seem to come to computer science later," says Ms. Cuny, citing
> research by Jane Margolis, of the University of California at Los Angeles
> Graduate School of Education, and Allan Fisher, a former associate dean of
> computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. "Women seem to be more
> interested in the uses of computer science, whereas guys seem to be more
> interested in the technology itself."
>
> For that reason, Ms. Cuny and other professors advocate that colleges
> restructure their curricula. Too many teenagers naïvely assume that the
> field is just about programming, they say, a perception reinforced by the
> Advanced Placement examination in computer science.
>
> As an example of a course that presents a broader view of the field, Ms.
> Cuny cites an introductory computer-science class at the Georgia Institute
> of Technology, taught by Mark Guzdial, in which students dissect a
> computer-animated scene of wildebeests charging over a ridge in the Disney
> film The Lion King.
>
> Some professors stress that high-school students need to be exposed to the
> imaginative aspects of computer science. Mr. Lazowska, of the University of
> Washington, recommends that more high schools hold competitions for students
> to design and build robots. "It's gender neutral, it's creative, and
> discovery oriented," he says.
>
> Adds Mr. Rashid, of Microsoft: "You need to talk about the romance of the
> field. It's not all about people sitting in cubicles eating pizza and typing
> away endless hours on a keyboard."
>
> THE RISE AND FALL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
>
> While student interest rose to record highs during the dot-com boom, in
> recent years the percentage of freshmen at four-year colleges expecting to
> major in computer science has fallen sharply.
>
> All Freshmen Men Women
> 1990 1.7% 2.3% 1.1%
> 1991 1.8% 2.5% 1.2%
> 1992 1.6% 2.4% 0.9%
> 1993 1.6% 2.6% 0.9%
> 1994 1.9% 3.1% 0.9%
> 1995 2.2% 3.7% 1.0%
> 1996 2.7% 4.6% 1.2%
> 1997 3.0% 5.1% 1.3%
> 1998 3.4% 5.8% 1.5%
> 1999 3.7% 6.6% 1.4%
> 2000 3.7% 6.5% 1.4%
> 2001 3.3% 6.1% 1.2%
> 2002 2,2% 4.2% 0.7%
> 2003 1.7% 3.3% 0.4%
> 2004 1.4% 2.8% 0.3%
> SOURCE: U. of California at Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute
>
>
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