Assignment 4 is due on Thursday March 10 at 10 am. It should be roughly 2500 words in length and is worth 10 marks.
This assignment will be completed in groups (with the ideal size of 4). The instructor and TAs will determine the grouping of students, with some effort to balance weaker and stronger students within groups.
The aim is to consider whether current CS curricula offered at universities are meeting the need for educating the next generation of computer experts, in order to ensure that society as a whole continues to enjoy the benefits that computerization offers.
You are asked to take as a starting point the undergraduate computer science curriculum offered at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. Begin by studying what is offered here and present a summary of the main drawing points and benefits.
Then reflect on what you feel should ideally be integrated into any university-level computer science curriculum. You may draw on your own experiences (personal or co-op), on knowledge of programs available at other institutions or on examples of challenges being faced by others whom you know, within the general population of the world. For this part of the essay, try to articulate clearly some of the major desired elements that computer science programs should be offering, describing each in turn and defending each as an element of some critical importance.
From here, return to your characterization of the computer science program at the University of Waterloo to suggest how it might be extended or adjusted in order to provide more of the elements you have identified as important, from the second part of the essay.
Conclude with some recommendations for the future, for any institution that is aiming to attract students to explore undergraduate computer science, and that is invested in assuring that these students can promote important advances to society through computerization, as they proceed with their future careers.