SIGDOC Newsletter
June 2009 :: Volume 10, Number 2
Features
Oh Indiana – then and now - Rob Pierce
Oh Indiana – then and now
In 1982, as a senior in college at Indiana University majoring in computer science, I was taking the most intellectually challenging and mind boggling class I had ever taken in my four years at college and it was the last hurdle to college graduation. The class was named “ theory of computability,” and was taught by a Pulitzer Prize winner.
At the same time, I was completing a senior thesis project that was a computer program (written in the pascal programming language) that handled the student class registration process.
Neither of these courses required much writing, writing skills, nor thought about communication, or so I thought at the time. Looking back however, I now see how there would have been much value in considering “communication” aspects to the work I was producing. For example, the computer program was in large part comprised of letting student registrants for classes know about their status, and handling potential errors in their registration forms. Good communication would mean, or could have meant, providing students with meaningful and helpful information - error text - when there was a problem with their registration form. For example, if they entered an invalid class id, or if the time for a given class had changed since they registered and needed to be notified, then a good registration system would provide information as these situations were handled. If they entered an invalid class id, possibly just by writing the wrong number, then good error handling in the programming and good communication in the error message, would notify the user, or in this case the student of the error and help them correct it.
My computability class professor's Pulitzer Prize winning work was, Godel Escher and Bach, and the class textbook – Introduction to Computability – was a step into a labyrinth of complexity for me. The exams were mysterious challenges where the measure of effort to effect became quite dubious, meaning, I would study hard, take the test, and not be sure if I did well or poorly, and then might score anywhere between a 32 and 87 and wind up with something in the range of a B as a curve was applied.
All of this complexity was in the days of punch cards and CRTs – cathode ray tubes – basic terminals were something not yet in use across campus nor did anyone own a personal computer that I knew of. Still, the program was successful, I got an A for it, and stored it in an old running shoe box for several years before losing track of the box.
Theoretical Complexity and analysis of algorithms was another area where better communication, if possible, would have been most helpful.
Still, I gained a deep appreciation that problem solving and critical thinking would remain timeless, and the mindset to write Pascal programs in 1980 would basically be the same as writing java code in 2010.
Writing and good communication skills have only become more and more valuable and important as the complexity and volume of information continues to grow and expand globally.
Much has changed and it is exciting to see that IU has also grown to meet many of these challenges. The computer science department is now a part of the School of Informatics.
http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/overview/what_is_informatics.asp
Here's a short video from the school on what is informatics:
http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/video/whatIsInformatics.asp
When I visited Bloomington recently to help prepare the arrangements for the 2009 conference, I met several faculty members and was struck by the nice mix of theory with eyes toward practical applications, including preparing graduates for entering technical fields with real-world experience. There was also now a good deal more awareness and appreciation of information development – that is, developing technical content as a software development practice.
In meeting with faculty, here is a sampling of the diversity I met:
- Jim Shea – Director of Planning for the School of Informatics
- Anne Massey - School of Business distinguished professor (http://www.kelley.iu.edu/facultyglobal/FacultyProfile.cfm?id=8816)
- Sun Kim – Director of the program in bioinformatics
- Jeremy Podany – Director of Career Services for the School of Informatics
There is much interest and activity around research in conjunction with industry to give real world examples, data, and applications to research.
One area of relevant study to real world solutions is known as services science. Paul Kontogiorgis, IT Services Curriculum Program Director for IBM, is one of the “ evangelists” for services science curriculums. He is planning to talk at SIGDOC 2009 and will present an experience report on tying technical skills with business process. While not directly about design of communication, Paul offers a great example of success stories where, like at SIGDOC conferences, theory meets practice, in this case in the form of integrated college curriculums.
Services sciences is an example of real world education for real world solutions.
See: http://www.slideshare.net/ifoundry/ibm-service-science-management-engineering
Another IBMer with extensive SIGDOC participation in the past, Michael Priestley will be a keynote speaker.
Referring back to the early 1980s at Indiana University, I want to note that my senior thesis programming project for developing a class registration program was in many ways the most interesting program I'd written up to that point in my life. Why? Because it solved a real world problem.
It would be interesting if part of the assignment was to have to also produce documentation that described the program and included what benefits it offered or what problems it solved, how to use it, and how to update, extend or maintain it. Designing this “communication” in 2009 offers a much, much bigger scope of possibilities than it did when software was still developed as a stack of punch cards.
Still, adding a writing element to computer science, adds practical skills for communication and real-world solution experience, and is a form of adding multidisciplinary components to a program.
While the term was likely not widely-known or used in 1980, “multidisciplinary” resonates in many areas of study as well as in the design of communication. And, in thinking of the content covered in the book, Godel, Escher, and Bach, isn't that truly a book ahead of its time in “braiding” different disciplines together?
I sent email to my former “complexity” professor at IU, Douglas Hofstadter, to see if I could score a home run and gain his interest in being a speaker at the SIGDOC 2009 conference. He wrote that he still vividly recalled teaching that computability course and some of the pictures that he drew on the board in order to try to get subtle ideas across. He enjoyed teaching it, though he never taught it again. And, while he appreciated the invitation to speak, he felt that he'd grown distant from computer science over the past 26-odd years, and didn't feel that he had anything to do with the discipline, and wouldn't feel comfortable addressing a group of “computer scientists.”
While we in SIGDOC may not all consider ourselves computer scientists, I think there is still, and will continue to be, the view that any SIG membership within ACM will be comprised of and focused around some aspect of computer science.
Here are some links to interesting “communication” from Dr. Hofstadter:
IU's Hofstadter among elite group named 2009 Academy of Arts and Sciences fellows
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/10655.html
A Person Paper on Purity in Language - William Satire (alias Douglas R. Hofstadter)
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/purity.html -
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid:
http://www.amazon.com/Godel-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567
Stanford Presidential Lecture, Analogy as Core, Core as Analogy:
http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/hofstadter/
Victim of the Brain
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8576072297424860224
Singularity Summit at Stanford
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8832143373632003914
We also secured sponsorships from both the IU's school of informatics and the school of business. On Tuesday, October 6, IU students and faculty will be able to attend SIGDOC activities and that day will include presenters, a panel discussion, and speakers affiliated with Indiana University or having a presentation that will be valuable to students. All IU attendees included in the sponsorship will also receive a one year SIGDOC membership. We believe this may become an effective growth strategy by engaging university communities going forward.
back to top |
