UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM (5 pages)
a. What is the rationale for the department's undergraduate instructional program(s)? How does
the department ensure that curricular offerings permit majors to complete their degrees in a
timely manner (i.e., four years, 180 units)? Discuss any undergraduate curricular problems
and efforts to solve them.
(Based on Phill's input)
a.1
The Department of Computer Science (CS) offers a B.S. in Computer Science in the College of
Engineering,
and a B.A. in Computer Science though the College of Letters and Science. In addition, CS is the
"cognate department"
for the B.S. in Computer Science in the College of Creative Studies.
A common rationale for all three of these degrees is a balanced mix of theory and practice. A
large number of our
courses require programming assignments and projects where the student must face design and
implementation details, which are, for the most part, excluded when discussing theoretical issues.
To
complement our required courses we offer a rich mix of elective courses, which include such
topics
as databases, cryptography, computer communication networks, network computing, computer
graphics,
machine intelligence. software engineering. security and privacy, and computer vision.
The rationale that distinguishes the three degrees is as follows:
* The B.S. program is an ABET accredited degree that focuses on a deep knowledge of
Computer Science,
and is suitable for a broad range of students.
* The B.A. program offers three distinct emphases: Computational Biology, Computational
Geography and
Computational Economics. Since the last PRP, CS has worked with the biology departments
(EEMB/MCDB), and with the
departments of Geography and Economics to design a degree that is primarily a degree in
Computer Science, but which includes
a core of courses in these other fields. Work in these three areas requires increasing amounts of
computation, and there was a sense
that a combined degree program would attract students that might otherwise not choose CS.
(Enrollments in this program have not
been as high as we had hoped---there is ongoing work to diagnose the reasons, and propose
solutions to this---more on this below.)
* The B.S. program in the College of Creative Studies is designed to recruit the most talented
and imaginative undergraduates, and provide them with the intellectual environment and advice
that enables them to transition quickly from consumers of computer science knowledge to
producers of such knowledge, that is, creative computer science colleagues. The program
offers an accelerated lower division curriculum (one year, rather than two), early access to upper
division courses, and an emphasis on undergraduate research. By design, the program is
relatively small (20-25 undergrads at any one time), i.e. between 5-10% of the total number of
students studying CS at UCSB.
The upper division requirements for CCS students are
identical to the upper division requirements for B.S. C.S. students. However, the accelerated
lower division opens up time in a student's schedule for independent study (for undergraduate
research) and graduate courses.
a.2
It is our intention to offer all the required CS courses at least twice a year.
The elective courses are offered only once a year, but we offer enough of them,
and the graduation requirements are flexible enough, that students normally do not need to delay
graduation for lack of elective courses offered during a given quarter.
Additionally, courses in related areas offered by other departments may count as major area
electives.
To help students plan their schedules ahead of lime, the curriculum committee publishes every
February
the list of courses to be offered the next academic year.
Timely graduation from CCS has been an issue in recent years. To address this, the CCS CS
faculty are putting a new emphasis on close monitoring of student progress. In addition, a CCSwide initiative known as the mid-residency review was put into effect for the first time in Winter
quarter 2009, to help identify any problems with a student's progress earlier so that corrective
action can be taken. This review will be required of all students going forward.
a.3
There are three major initiative underway related to the undergraduate programs of the CS
department:
(1) A restructuring of the lower division curriculum (this affects both the BA and BA programs
in CoE and L&S).
(2) A review of the BA program in CS.
(3) Initiatives related to the CCS program.
The most comprehensive of these is the lower division curriculum restructuring. This effort is
in response to student feedback and performance over the past five years. Our goal with this
restructuring is to better enable all students to build a solid foundation in computer science and to
improve their overall educational experience in our department. The department has investigated
how best to implement this restructuring since Fall of 2007. Fall 2009 will be the first quarter in
which we offer the new classes. All of the topics currently covered by our current courses will be
covered by our new courses. However, to increase the depth in understanding of the topics and
to make the classes more engaging and intuitive, we will restructure the topics in new ways and
introduce recently emerged and successful pedagogical practices as part of the lectures. We also
will offer a new seminar required for all freshmen that introduces students to the computer
science discipline and the opportunities it enables in research and technology.
With this restructuring, we address directly the limitations of our current curriculum that are
repeatedly identified by our students (graduated and current):
* To better prepare students for our upper division systems courses
* To better prepare students for the upper division digital design and architecture courses.
* To simplify and clarify the introduction of basic programming constructs in a way that is fluid
and that builds upon earlier classes better.
* To expose students to modern software engineering, programming, and professional
development tools and practices.
* To make CS40 consistent and non-redundant with upper division course topics,
* To clarify the importance of the topics to the larger computer science discipline (especially in
CS40).
* To provide more interesting and engaging pedagogy, examples, and projects in the lower
division that reinforce the importance and potential of computer science.
To address these issues, we propose a new lower division sequence (i.e. courses that
undergraduate students take in their first two years of study) that covers the topics that we
currently teach but in a different order, with more depth, and with less redundancy. In particular,
our restructured course sequence (i) focuses on problem solving and computational thinking, (ii)
introduces key programming concepts with increasing depth and complexity over the course of a
tightly coupled (to ensure fluidity) four-class sequence (CS16, CS24, CS32, CS48), (iii) initially
introduces low-level, systems programming using the C language coupled with computer
architecture basics, then gradually incorporates higher-level abstractions (objects) and languagespecific concepts and tools, as students’ maturity and experience grows, (iv) employs modern
program development tools throughout (e.g. for building, debugging, and testing programs).
The plan also introduces two new classes. The first is a new one-unit seminar (CS1) required for
all freshmen that introduces students to the computer science discipline and the opportunities it
enables in research and technology. The second is a new four-unit course that introduces
students to Java (a high-level, managed language), its implementations, and its tools (CS56).
CS56 is for students in their second year of the lower division sequence once they have acquired
the necessary maturity and experience with low-level systems programming. This brings our
total number of required units to 185 – which is equal to the lowest in the College of Engineering
at UCSB.
Each of the classes will employ recent advances in educational technology and pedagogy that
have been shown to be successful for other, similar programs. These include (i) more hands-on
experience with writing programs and solving problems, (ii) novel classroom activities that
facilitate teacher-student interaction, (iii) programming assignments and problem sets that are
more realistic and interesting to students and that reveal the importance of the topics in the larger
context of computer science, technology and the world around us, (iv) use of program
development tools, e.g., debuggers, integrated development environments, testing systems,
documentation systems, collaboration tools, and (v) team-based and end-to-end (design,
implementation, demonstration, presentation) program development and collaboration.
The restructuring and pedagogical improvements will not only benefit the computer science
Bachelor of Science (CS) students by addressing each of the issues that we identify above
directly, but will also benefit all of our other educational constituents. Bachelor of Arts (CS/BA)
students will benefit from the increased depth of knowledge and preparation, fluidity across
courses, and insights into the importance of the topics in the world around us. Computer
engineering (CE) and Electrical Engineering (EE) students will benefit from the courses being
taught using lower-level programming constructs (integrated with architectural basics) early on,
introducing higher-level concepts incrementally. Finally, students who elect to take our classes
(e.g. introductory programming and computer science classes) will benefit from state-of-the-art
pedagogy as well as modern software engineering practices that they can apply to each of their
fields and interests.
In addition to the restructuring, we are also currently taking a fresh look at the BA program.
The hope was that the introduction of three new empahses would increase enrollements in this
program. However, enrollments in this program have remained relatively flat @@@ IS THAT
TRUE? CHECK THE NUMBERS???@@@. The undergraduate committee is currently
exploring several ideas to address this---however, it is too soon to report on these, as they have
not yet been discussed by the full faculty. What we can say, is that there seems to be an
emerging consensus that the status quo is not an option we are comfortable with, and that some
change must and will take place.
Finally, the CCS program has received some attention since the previous PRP. A strength of
the program is that it attracts very talented students to study Computer Science at UCSB, many
of whom go on to have very significant accomplishments.
The flexibility of the program
allows students that are motivated and self-directed to go far beyond what they could accomplish
with the confines of a more traditional curriculum. One of the features of CCS that enables this
is a less rigid enforcement of pre-requisites, enabling students to take advanced courses earier, or
out of sequence. This feature of CCS has created some concerns and friction between the CCS
and the CS program in recent years. To retain the benefits of this flexibilty while also
addressing the concerns of CS faculty, a more rigorous system of review has been put in place by
the CCS CS faculty, where students must obtain specific advisor permission from a CCS CS
faculty member before enrolling in any CS upper division course. This change has been fairly
recent, so it is too early to have any meaningful data, but anecdotally, the change seems to be
working well, and it is an area we will continue to monitor.
b. Describe departmental honors programs and projects, and the educational experiences they
provide to qualified students.
We recently established a Distinction in the Major Program (DIMAP). The top 10% of students
are eligible to apply for admission to this program. In order to receive Distinction in the Major,
admitted students need to complete either a Research Project under the supervision of a faculty
member or a Capstone Project under the supervision of the instructors of the capstone project
course sequence. All students who participate in the DIMAP give 30-minute public
presentations of their projects, which are evaluated by at least two faculty members, one of
which is the student’s advisor. Students who receive successful evaluations receive Distinction
in the Major.
CS is also the "cognate department" for the Computer Science program in the College of
Creative Studies which provides an additional path for academically gifted students to pursue
Computer Science. CCS students are required to complete their upper division courses from
those offered by CS. Some CCS students take advantage of graduate courses offered by CS,
and engage in undergraduate research with CS faculty members.
c. How is undergraduate research encouraged in the department, and how successful has the
department been in this regard in recent years?
As discussed above, the department has a distinction in major program. Give details on the
number of students.
Faculty members also solicit students interested in research in the courses that they teach. On the
average,
we have about ? undergraduate students involved in research.
d. What efforts are made to encourage superior prospective undergraduate students to enter the
major and to retain them to completion of the degree? What efforts are made to increase the
diversity of undergraduate majors and to retain them to completion of the degree?
The department has several programs in place to attract and retain a
diverse undergraduate student body. First,
we created a new degree, the BA in Computer Science, which is
interdisciplinary and offered through the College of
Letters and Sciences. This was created especially to attract females
to computing by combining computing with
other fields. This was initially the case (4% higher females, 8%
higher underrepresented minorities), though the decrease in overall
demand for computer science has reduced the numbers so that they are
not statistically significant.
Second, we have participated in outreach programs to middle schools
located in local areas with high Latino/a populations.
For retention, we have several new programs. Under faculty guidance,
students created a new Women in Software and Hardware (WISH) club. In
addition, the faculty has redesigned the introductory curriculum to be
more friendly to inexperienced students (of which females and
underrepresented minorities are a disproportionate number). The
diverisity committee is currently running a focus group for Latino/as
to design new initiatives. Finally, the ACM is formalizing their
tutoring / mentoring program, again under faculty guidance. Many of
these retention initiatives have begun in the past two years, so we
have yet to see their effectiveness.
e. Describe the departmental major advising and general advising programs. What role does the
faculty play?
f. How does the department monitor the quality of its undergraduates at the different stages of
their studies, and how does it handle underperforming majors? Comment on departmental
grading trends.
g. What efforts are under way to improve instruction? What sources of evidence (e.g., student
evaluations, peer evaluation) does the department use to assess the quality of teaching? How
is good teaching effectively encouraged? Comment on the mix of ladder-rank faculty,
lecturers, and teaching assistants in undergraduate instruction and on the level of contact
between faculty and undergraduate students.
h. How are teaching assistants trained, supervised, and evaluated?
i. What measures other than the improvement of teaching itself could help raise the quality of
instruction (e.g., classroom facilities, effective instructional equipment)?
j. What paths are taken by students after they graduate from the major, e.g., job placement rates,
graduate and professional school admission rates? How does the department track its
graduates?
k. How would the department characterize the results of the undergraduate student survey?
Does it believe they are generally representative of the experience of undergraduate majors in
the department?
l. Comment on the department's general education offerings with respect to frequency,
enrollments in the past five years, and the level of appointments teaching those courses.
m. If the department's programs are subject to accreditation, comment on any recent reviews and
their conclusions regarding quality of instruction.
n. How does the department provide access by students to its course syllabi?