Open AccessCreating A Separate Introductory Computer Science Course For Engineers: An Experience In Moving From Java To Python
Author(s) -
Jason Morrison,
Terry Andres
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
proceedings of the ... ceea conference
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2371-5243
DOI - 10.24908/pceea.v0i0.4673
Subject(s) - python (programming language) , java , computer science , curriculum , science and engineering , course (navigation) , mathematics education , programming language , software engineering , computer science and engineering , engineering ethics , engineering , mathematics , pedagogy , sociology , aerospace engineering
The University of Manitoba (U. of M.) 2011-12 curriculum has a new introductory programming/computer science course specifically for current or future engineering students. This course focuses on teaching fundamentals of programming and computer science through mathematical computation using Python. The need for this course came from a grass roots movement by engineering professors to evaluate the previous course and provide direction and/or assistance to the department of computer science. The committee felt it was time to abandon Java as the introductory language for engineers. This talk discussesthe resulting course; the challenges in selecting the version of Python to use; and the difficulties and rewards of the change to a new and previously untaught language at the U. of M.