Workshop on Computing Curricula 9-10 April 2015 Pune

Workshop on Computing Curricula
9-10 April 2015
Pune
ACM India is pleased to announce an important Workshop on Computing Curricula, to be held in
Pune from 9-10 April. Organised by the ACM India Pune Professional Chapter and the Savitribai
Phule Pune University, this high level Workshop will bring together leading professionals, teachers
and practitioners of computing to take a view on the computing of the future and what today’s
graduates should know.
Background
Starting from a small number of higher education institutions in the 1990s, today there are over
3500 engineering colleges and institutes spread over the country. This massive growth in
computing education has followed the rapid growth of the Indian information technology industry.
Around 1 million engineering students graduate each year in India and 300,000-350,000 – 35% –
of them find well-paid work in the IT or IT-related industry. Inevitably, the content of curricula is
largely focussed on what would get employment for these graduates, with little focus on research
and teaching.
In the same period, computing has gone through an enormous transformation. Use of computers
and the Internet is widespread. Each of the 900 million cellphones in use here has more computing
power than available in the computer centres of the 1980s. The pace of change is likely increase,
not to slow down, and the kind of computing required for national, industrial and personal use will
change dramatically in the next decade.
To realise its full potential, it is essential that computer education turns its focus to the future of
computing, rather than the traditional views of the past.
Computing for the Future
Instead of looking at today’s employment market, it is time to review computing curricula and orient
it towards the scientific and technological needs of the future. Some critical questions are:
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What should today’s graduates know to make them productive members of their profession
in the next 5-10 years?
How do we educate young people to lead the profession, not just to be part of it?
How should computing curricula be changed to provide this education?
Where will the teachers for this kind of curricula come from?
ACM Curriculum 2013
For several decades, ACM has produced a model curriculum that embodies what leading
academic and industrial practitioners felt was important for that period. This curriculum is revised
every 10 years and the latest version, ACM Curriculum 2013 represents the current view of what is
important for today’s students to be prepared for the computing they will encounter and create in
their professional lives, as professionals and academic practitioners.
Venue and Registration Information
Venue:
The Taj Blue Diamond (Vivanta), Koregaon Park, Pune.
Registration: http://1drv.ms/1GngTrL
Methodology
The Workshop will review ACM’s Curriculum 2013 and see how effectively it can be a
template for the curricula of Indian institutions.
Apart from new educational content to match the future achievements of computing, the classroom
will be transformed by computing technology. Classroom education will change from merely
transmitting knowledge to active participation by students in the learning process. A number of new
initiatives in online education, from overseas and from India, will be presented and discussed at the
Workshop.
Debate, Discussion and Dissension
A panel discussion on 9th April will allow different viewpoints to be presented and discussed. On
10th April, there will be an opportunity to summarise and present new directions in computing
education.
Programme (tentative)
9th April
10:00 am
Welcome from ACM India (President)
10:10 am
Welcome from SPPU, the Hon'ble VC
10:20 am
Presentation on ACM (John White, ACM CEO)
10:30 am
Talk by Chief Guest (D B Phatak, IITB)
11:30 am
Tea/coffee break
11:45 am
ACM Curriculum 2013: general objectives, achievements (Mehran Sahami, Stanford)
12:45 pm
Adoption of ACM Curriculum 2013 (Barbara Owens, SWU)
01:15 pm
Lunch
02:15 pm
Employer's View: Lakshmi Narayanan (Vice-Chairman, Cognizant)
Panel discussion: Small and Medium Employers View
03:00 pm
Shridhar Shukla (KPoint), Navin Kabra (Smriti), Monish Darda (iCertis), Sheila Anand (Rajalakshmi Engg. College),
Moderator: Giri Kasmalkar (SQS India)
04:00 pm
Tea/coffee
04:15 pm
Challenges in Indian CS education: quality, teaching, exams (Madhavan Mukund, CMI)
05:00 pm
Discussion
06:00 pm
Close
10th April
10:00 am
Initiative 1 -- Coursera / Udacity / EdX (Gautam Shroff, TCS)
10:45 am
Initiative 2 -- NPTEL (Andrew Thangaraj, NPTEL)
11:30 am
Tea/coffee
11:45 am
Initiative 3 -- MSR-I MEC (Bill Theis, Microsoft Research India)
12:30 pm
Initiative 4 -- IIT Bombay (Kannan Moudgalya, IITB)
01:15 pm
Lunch
02:00 pm
Setting up Focus Working Groups
02:15 pm
Focus Working Groups discussion
03:15 pm
Tea/coffee
03:30 pm
Reports from Focus Working Groups
04:30 pm
Summary and next steps
05:30 pm
Close