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The claim that an engineer would run this study better is baseless. Most CS faculty I know do not have the experience necessary to plan and run a well thought o

The claim that an engineer would run this study better is baseless. Most CS faculty I know do not have the experience necessary to plan and run a well thought out randomized controlled experiment with human subjects. There is definitely some good work done by CS professors on CS education but in general a Psych faculty member will be better equipped to run a study such as the one cited.

pottersbasilisk 9y ago
Psychology is under a replication crisis. Is CS under the same ?
- mining 9y ago
  They're not comparable disciplines. One (in theory) involves trivially replicable experiments (just rerun the binary) and the other does not.
davidf18 9y ago
The article was not referring to CS but engineering. EE, ME, Civil, Chem, Aero, Industrial, http://engineering.illinois.edu/academics/rankings.html http://engineering.illinois.edu/academics/rankings.html My EE profs at Illinois were capable to run studies and they understand the rigors of the domain which a psychologist would not understand. The study is in a very emotional area and the findings get lots of publicity advancing careers but making it more likely the results are biased. I have also worked in CS and studied it so I can say it is not engineering.
- davidf18 9y ago
  From the Atlantic article. "It’s no wonder women in the U.S. hold just 13 to 22 percent of the doctorates in engineering, compared to an already-low 33 percent in the sciences as a whole." The info cited is in an Excel spreadsheet with this footnote: "Degrees in engineering include degrees in all areas of engineering--for example, chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering--as well as degrees in general engineering."
- ASpring 9y ago
  My mistake, CS is in the school of engineering at my institution. My point stands. A social science researcher is better equipped to run this study than an engineering researcher. > My EE profs at Illinois were capable to run studies and they understand the rigors of the domain which a psychologist would not understand. This is silly. Switch EE and Psychology and you can say the same thing. "EE faculty on average don't understand the human elements and how to control for them well enough to run the study." > The study is in a very emotional area and the findings get lots of publicity advancing careers but making it more likely the results are biased. All of academia. Let's break out of the "STEM faculty can do everyone else's jobs better than them" mentality. It is hurting our field.

pottersbasilisk 9y ago

Psychology is under a replication crisis. Is CS under the same ?

mining 9y ago
They're not comparable disciplines. One (in theory) involves trivially replicable experiments (just rerun the binary) and the other does not.

davidf18 9y ago

The article was not referring to CS but engineering. EE, ME, Civil, Chem, Aero, Industrial, http://engineering.illinois.edu/academics/rankings.html http://engineering.illinois.edu/academics/rankings.html My EE profs at Illinois were capable to run studies and they understand the rigors of the domain which a psychologist would not understand. The study is in a very emotional area and the findings get lots of publicity advancing careers but making it more likely the results are biased. I have also worked in CS and studied it so I can say it is not engineering.

davidf18 9y ago
From the Atlantic article. "It’s no wonder women in the U.S. hold just 13 to 22 percent of the doctorates in engineering, compared to an already-low 33 percent in the sciences as a whole." The info cited is in an Excel spreadsheet with this footnote: "Degrees in engineering include degrees in all areas of engineering--for example, chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering--as well as degrees in general engineering."
ASpring 9y ago
My mistake, CS is in the school of engineering at my institution. My point stands. A social science researcher is better equipped to run this study than an engineering researcher. > My EE profs at Illinois were capable to run studies and they understand the rigors of the domain which a psychologist would not understand. This is silly. Switch EE and Psychology and you can say the same thing. "EE faculty on average don't understand the human elements and how to control for them well enough to run the study." > The study is in a very emotional area and the findings get lots of publicity advancing careers but making it more likely the results are biased. All of academia. Let's break out of the "STEM faculty can do everyone else's jobs better than them" mentality. It is hurting our field.