3 ms·

I think academia is not about business and should never be about business. IMHO If the academia starts to aim industry students will stop doing research, innova

by fsniper 17y ago

I think academia is not about business and should never be about business. IMHO If the academia starts to aim industry students will stop doing research, innovating or doing teaching. This will be catastrophic for CS and industry.

timwiseman 17y ago
It sort of depends on how you define Academia. If by Academia you mean "Liberal Arts + Sciences" then I agree, but by that definition all major universities go far beyond that. Universities teach those, but they also have some programs focused on practical applications (and some people think of Academia as simply "what universities do"). The obvious example are the professional degrees such as the JD, MBA, MD, etc. Engineers and architects are also expected to emerge being able to put those skills to use almost immediately after graduation. They all come with some on the job training, but that is true of virtually every job/profession. Those with "applied degrees" are expected to have received the vast bulk of the training they need to enter and work in that industry at college and it would be catastrophic for industry if they did not. Now, CS as it (mostly) is now is an academic degree in the former sense. The question is whether "Software Engineering" should be separated out form CS as an applied degree similar to other forms of engineering. Personally, I think it should. This would free "Pure CS" to focus on theory and algorithms and the mathematics behind them and general research while providing employeers and those students primarily interested in becoming employed with a more focused degree that can include more methodology while deemphasizing the theory. There would of course be vast overlap between CS and Software Engineering, but this is just like chemical engineering and chemistry being separate. The overlap between the two is huge, but they are not identical and different people chose one of the two deliberately and with good reason.
- fsniper 17y ago
  Separating CS and Software engineering is a must in this case. But thinking of Software engineering as a "applied degree" is downgrading what Software Engineering could be. Software Engineering can be a research and innovation degree. But nowadays it's not thought as one. There are just "programing degrees" specialized for these cases. (there are in Turkey. But I'm not sure about USA and Europe)
  - timwiseman 17y ago
    But thinking of Software engineering as a "applied degree" is downgrading what Software Engineering could be. It is largely a point of view, but I would respectfully disagree. I suspect most people would think of an MD as an "applied degree" (or applied doctorate as the case may be), but many MD's engage in research and innovation. The same is true of the engineering degrees.

by fsniper 17y ago

timwiseman 17y ago

It sort of depends on how you define Academia. If by Academia you mean "Liberal Arts + Sciences" then I agree, but by that definition all major universities go far beyond that. Universities teach those, but they also have some programs focused on practical applications (and some people think of Academia as simply "what universities do"). The obvious example are the professional degrees such as the JD, MBA, MD, etc. Engineers and architects are also expected to emerge being able to put those skills to use almost immediately after graduation. They all come with some on the job training, but that is true of virtually every job/profession. Those with "applied degrees" are expected to have received the vast bulk of the training they need to enter and work in that industry at college and it would be catastrophic for industry if they did not. Now, CS as it (mostly) is now is an academic degree in the former sense. The question is whether "Software Engineering" should be separated out form CS as an applied degree similar to other forms of engineering. Personally, I think it should. This would free "Pure CS" to focus on theory and algorithms and the mathematics behind them and general research while providing employeers and those students primarily interested in becoming employed with a more focused degree that can include more methodology while deemphasizing the theory. There would of course be vast overlap between CS and Software Engineering, but this is just like chemical engineering and chemistry being separate. The overlap between the two is huge, but they are not identical and different people chose one of the two deliberately and with good reason.

fsniper 17y ago
Separating CS and Software engineering is a must in this case. But thinking of Software engineering as a "applied degree" is downgrading what Software Engineering could be. Software Engineering can be a research and innovation degree. But nowadays it's not thought as one. There are just "programing degrees" specialized for these cases. (there are in Turkey. But I'm not sure about USA and Europe)
- timwiseman 17y ago
  But thinking of Software engineering as a "applied degree" is downgrading what Software Engineering could be. It is largely a point of view, but I would respectfully disagree. I suspect most people would think of an MD as an "applied degree" (or applied doctorate as the case may be), but many MD's engage in research and innovation. The same is true of the engineering degrees.