Computer Science School: What You Need To Know
Many universities have a computer science school embedded within them, in the same way they might have a school of business or a law school. These computer science schools typically umbrella over all forms of data management, combinations of computers with other forms of science, programming, as well computer development. The courses offered within the computer science schools typically include what was mentioned above, as well as algorithm analysis, the theory of computation, and human-computer interaction.
An important part of what is taught at a school of computer science is computational thinking. Put simply, computational thinking is the solving of problems, designing of systems, or even studying human behavior using methods that a computer might. A computer science school teaches about thinking in abstractions, and how to shift between the often-multiple levels of abstraction present in a system, whether it is strictly computer-based or not.
Perhaps the most well-known computer science school is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT. A strong philosophy of "learning by doing" made MIT a pioneer in using laboratories as a setting for teaching. This carries over to their Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) School, which is their most popular department. Heavily slanted toward developing new technologies and expanding research in currently available fields, the EECS is one of the premiere computer science schools in the country.
Carnegie Mellon University also has a very well developed school of computer science, tied for first place along with MIT, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University. Since gaining its status as a separate school, as opposed to simply a department, Carnegie Mellon SCS has had many breakthroughs in the areas of algorithms, parallel processing, robotics, programming languages, and software engineering. UC Berkeley has made many contributions to the field of computer science. Playing a key role in both the development of the Internet as well as the free software movement, Berkeley students and faculty have made great achievements in the area of computer sciences. A student who graduated from their computer science school went on to found Sun Microsystems. Additionally, they have made great strides in floating-point arithmetic, furthering the development of programming languages through the IEEE 754 standard. There are also schools of computer science in the online sector of education, with similar structures to those offered in university settings. However, they offer increased flexibility in taking classes at the student's pace, and can be done while working either full- or part-time. Students are typically required to participate in forums and Internet-based work groups, so they do not miss out on that very important part of studying a computer science degree. There are many places to attend schools of computer science, and many uses for a degree in computer science. The jobs, which are currently available for computer scientists, are expected to grow quickly through 2014, and the average earnings are around $59,000 a year. For these reasons, it would be beneficial to someone interested in computers on a technical level to look into some schools of computer science.
|
