The Information in This Package Will Have a Serious Impact on the Undergraduate Program

The Information in This Package Will Have a Serious Impact on the Undergraduate Program

December 12, 2001

The information in this package will have a serious impact on the undergraduate program in computer science at the University of Waterloo over the next ten to fifteen years. It details two competing designs for a new degree program, one of which will form the basis for a complete program design to be completed and approved in 2002.

These documents are part of the process to create a new Bachelor of Computer Science (B.CS) degree. Concurrent with the creation of a School of Computer Science at UW, the CS department wishes to offer this alternative to students who may not be drawn to the study of mathematics for its own sake, or who wish to learn more about other areas of application for core CS concepts. CS will continue to offer and support the current BMath(CS) degree. The CS Curriculum Committee (CC) will choose the mathematical content of the B.CS to support and enhance CS material. Our attitude blends idealism with an awareness of practical concerns, notably the scarcity of course development and teaching resources, and our position within the Faculty of Mathematics. We will also take this opportunity to suggest other changes which we believe are imperative in the light of current circumstances.

CS faculty, in an electronic vote, chose two models from a palette of five to send to independent design teams (created from CC and augmented by additional helpers) for further study. The results are the two designs in this package. They represent two different philosophies of curricular design, and a choice must be made between them. The comprehensive model reflects current practice in the BMath(CS); it features a core of CS and Math courses specified through third year, with choice of CS electives in fourth year. Graduates of such a program will have a fairly extensive set of common skills and exposure to concepts. The self-directed model reduces the CS and Math core while maintaining the total number of required CS courses. Its aim is to allow more individual flexibility, appealing to a more diverse population, and facilitating the creation of interdisciplinary programs or concentrations in areas of application.

The designs here are not complete, but enough detail has been supplied to make their differences clear. They will be discussed at a special meeting of CS faculty and an open meeting for students, both in the first half of January. Following this, we will poll the CS department on their design preference, and offer them a chance to specify which features they prize the most. CC will attempt to integrate popular features from the losing design into the winning one before starting a complete program design through the formal approval process.

We look forward to hearing the resulting discussions, analyses, and opinions. Electronic feedback will be added to the Web page set up for the B.CS degree ( that page also contains many design support materials and documentation of the process to date.

Prabhakar Ragde, Associate Chair (Curricula), Computer Science
for the CS Curriculum Committee and the B.CS design teams