Artificial Unintelligence

That title isn’t a joke on my part; it’s the name of the lesson plan used at Georgia Tech in a course “aimed at reigniting interest in computer science among undergraduates.” According to an article in Forbes, educators are trying to reverse the trend against majoring in computer science by changing the curriculum to attract people who are not mathematically inclined. Some of these changes at Georgia Tech and other colleges and universities include:

• Giving students little blue robots called “Scribblers” that can be programmed to draw shapes and make sounds (kind of like Logo in three dimensions).
• Emphasizing the use of computers in other popular subjects such as bioengineering, entertainment, and medicine.
• De-emphasizing the use of computers as mathematical tools (the “prime number syndrome”).

I do wonder about a college course whose lesson plan contains wording such as, “Singing, dancing and drawing polygons may be nifty, but any self-respecting evil roboticist needs a few more tricks in the repertoire if they are going to take over the world.” Unfortunately, whether computer science students have math aptitude or not, sooner or later they are going to have to put the Scribbler aside and apply actual mathematical concepts to their work. Also, I think that anyone going into the computer field should have some rudimentary knowledge of computer history, which was something that was never mentioned in the Forbes article.

Still, it’s a good idea to try to get more people interested in computer science, because it’s a vital skill that will be in great demand in the near future. I hope a whole new generation will experience the same excitement in computers that I felt when I started nearly thirty years ago.

Tags: Computer Science

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