Archive for the ‘CS’ Category.
September 14, 2009, 11:32 pm
This week a new group project was introduced in CS 125 at University of Illinois. This project asks teams to choose from one of four possible prompts to lead the five-person group on an exploration of the process of coding in Java as well as an adventure through the endless possibilities that are the art of programming.
CS 125 already had several iFoundry-esque features. Unlike traditional engineering courses that pin one student against another, CS 125 students are encouraged to work together on the Machine Problems and come together on the newsgroup that encourages team work and sharing amongst the student body. This does not mean that solutions are bluntly shared over the internet, but that students, as well as TA’s and the professor, are given a space to share ideas and problems and to work together to learn the skills necessary to be the next Picasso of binary.
With Computer Science being on of the newest inductees into the world of Engineering, one must ask what has been learned and improved upon in the creation of this new field?
One of the most important things reborn in CS is the view of the engineer as a creative person. Coding is seen as much as an art as it is a skill. The product is more than the result of endless hours of precise calculations and formulas, but the creative genius that allows a skilled artist to mix his primary colors that consist or if/then statements to create works that are pure magic to the passing viewer.
