Le Moyne College

The computer science program serves two primary functions:

1.    To offer students majoring in computer science a well-rounded, career-oriented program in software design and development.

The department requires its majors to complete eleven computer science courses, to complete two courses in each of two cognate fields (foreign language and mathematics) and to minor in another academic discipline.

2.    To offer other students careful instruction in using the computing tools required by their disciplines.

Two common questions people often have regarding computer science are:

What is computer science?

One answer to this question was put forth by Jeannette M. Wing in her 2006 article published in Communications of the ACM (Volume 49, Issue 3).  In this article, Dr. Wing coined the term computational thinking to provide insights into what computer science is all about.  Her article describes computational thinking, and thus computer science, as having the following characteristics:

• Conceptualizing, not programming.
• Fundamental, not rote skill.
• A way that humans, not computers, think.
• Complements and combines mathematical and engineering thinking.
• Ideas, not artifacts.

One intriguing statement from the article – “to reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child's analytical ability” – offers a challenge to our K-12 education community to emphasize computational thinking as much as we emphasize the three R's.

What do computer scientists do?

Computer scientists solve problems and design systems by understanding and applying human knowledge and behavior. Computers, while they are fast and usually accurate, are designed to emulate human capabilities. A simple example of this is that humans do not know how to divide a number by zero - the result of dividing a number by zero is undefined. Thus, computers are designed to raise an exception when an attempt is made to divide a number by zero.

Distinctive features

Le Moyne's computer science (CS) major is distinctive in the following ways:

• The theory and practice of software design is emphasized throughout the curriculum. Instead of covering some traditional CS topics in separate courses, these topics are integrated into a coherent theme that permeates the curriculum.
• Each CS major is required to minor in another discipline. This gives each student an opportunity to apply computer science to another discipline/domain.
• Students' are given two semesters to complete a research/capstone project. This provides significant time for a student to investigate their chosen topic.
• A technology transition course is taken in the fourth year of study. This course will help students prepare for their professional career (whether the student goes to graduate school or begins working in industry).

Job outlook

The 2008-2009 edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook tracks five job occupations related to computing. Two of these occupations are typically associated with people that have a bachelor's degree in computer science - Computer Software Engineer and Computer Systems Analyst. The Computer Software Engineer occupation is “one of the occupations projected to grow the fastest and add the most new jobs over the 2006-16 decade”. The Computer Systems Analyst occupation is “expected to increase much faster than the average and more new jobs are expected to arise than in all but a few other occupations”. A third occupation, Computer Programmer, is “expected to decline by four percent through 2016”. However, job prospects “will be best for applicants with a bachelor’s degree and experience with a variety of programming languages and tools”.

Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, two of the ten fastest growing occupations for college graduates – computer software engineer-applications and computer software engineer-systems software – are directly related to the computer science program at Le Moyne.  In addition, two of the ten industries with the fastest employment growth are software publishing and computer systems design and related services.

In addition to the increased demand for computer science majors, the U.S. is experiencing a skilled labor shortage in science and engineering disciplines.  Statistics from the National Science Foundation in a 2000 report to Congress show the ratio of science and engineering degrees per 100 24-year-olds. As of 2000, the U.S. had the lowest ratio of twelve industrial nations at 5.7 graduates per 100.  The dot-com boom of the late 1990's, followed by the dot-com bust in 2000, received a lot of attention from the national media. This had the affect of scaring high school seniors away from considering computer science as a major. The chart found here clearly shows the effect the dot-com bust had on the pipeline of CS graduates looking for entry-level positions. So even though the IT job market has either stayed relatively flat (2000-2003) or experienced an increase in demand (2004-present), the number of qualified job applicants has shrunk.

Why take computer science at a liberal arts college?

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) do an annual survey of employers. Employers responding to this survey rate the importance of candidate qualities. The table below shows the top six qualities employers’ identified in 2003 and 2007:

While the list of the top six qualities has changed slightly over the years, the same qualities continue to be most important from an employer’s perspective.

Given these survey results, one can conclude that a well-rounded liberal arts education should improve your job prospects upon graduation. At Le Moyne, each student is required to take the core curriculum. These core courses emphasize many of the qualities listed above. In comparison, a technical school will have significantly fewer liberal arts requirements, giving you fewer opportunities to improve on these qualities.

Other perspectives on the top six qualities include:

• Information technology does not exist in a vacuum - it is developed and used by humans. Thus it should be no surprise that human qualities are more important than technical qualities.
• The stereotype of a programmer developing software in a closet is long gone. The complexity of modern software systems requires people with various expertises to work together on producing software.