SGER: Computational Thinking for Practicing Engineers

这是SGER的要求，满足了工业界和学术界对计算机专业人员在计算思维方面的坚实基础知识的需求。各级计算机科学招生人数的下降使得这种需求难以满足，结果是有经验的从业者没有充分发挥他们的潜力，因为他们可能缺乏计算机科学方面的正式培训。总的来说，对于计算从业人员来说，除了掌握计算基础之外，不存在合适的替代方法。选修大量的计算机科学基础本科课程是不合适的，因为这需要时间，而且这些课程面向的是缺乏经验或领域专业知识的学生。此外，大多数研究生课程通常将这些知识作为先决条件。这个SGER项目建议通过将基础知识浓缩成一组模块来解决这一关键需求，这些模块简化了其表示，并将其与实际工程示例联系起来，目标是具有一些软件开发经验的学生。这样的课程将有助于弥合当今软件系统的实际性质与应用先进技术和理论解决实际问题所需的基础之间的差距。智力优势：该项目将通过以下方式解决目前工程实践与与计算思维和计算机科学基础相关的教育材料之间的差距：为实践工程师提炼计算思维的基本要素，2。提供将这些概念与实际应用联系起来的方法；将材料打包成模块，以满足不同的背景和需求。该项目团队建议开发一门课程，直接满足上述需求。具体来说，它将提炼和包装计算思维的核心、基础概念集，这些概念经受住了时间的考验，与从事软件开发或其他具有重要计算组件的学科（例如计算生物学、计算天文学等）的专业人员广泛相关。将制订一项评估策略，以评估该项目的质量和成效。评估的两个主要领域将是课程内容的评估和课程交付的评估。

This is a SGER request that addresses both industry's and academia's need for computer professionals with solid foundational knowledge in computational thinking. Declining computer science enrollment at all levels is making such a need hard to meet, with the result that experienced practitioners are not fully realizing their potential because they may lack formal training in computer science. By and large, suitable alternatives to mastery on computing foundation do not exist for the population of computing practitioners. Taking a large number of undergraduate courses in foundational computer science topics is inappropriate because of the time commitment and the fact that such courses are oriented towards students with little experience or domain expertise. Moreover, most graduate courses typically assume this knowledge as a prerequisite. This SGER project proposes to address this critical need by condensing the foundational knowledge into a set of modules that streamlines its presentation and relates it to practical engineering examples, targeting students with some experience in software development. Such a course will help bridge the gap between the practical nature of todays software systems and the foundations needed to apply advanced techniques and theories to solve real problems. Intellectual Merit: This project will address the current gap between engineering practice and educational materials related to computational thinking and computer science foundations by: 1. Distilling the essential elements of computational thinking for practicing engineers, 2. Providing ways to relate those concepts to practical applications, 3. Packaging the material in modules that can satisfy diverse backgrounds and needs. This project team proposes to develop a course that directly addresses the requirements outlined above. Specifically, it will distill and package the set of core, foundational concepts of computational thinking that have stood the test of time and are relevant broadly to professionals working in software development or other disciplines that have a significant computational component, for example computational biology, computational astronomy, etc. An evaluation strategy will be put in place to assess the quality and effectiveness of the project. The two main areas of evaluation will be evaluation of course content, and evaluation of course delivery.