I was going to call this "An Immodest Proposal" or "A Proper Rant", but as you well know, I'm too much of a pragmatist not to get straight down to brass tacks on this subject.

I've been thinking - not just this morning, nor only this past week, but really this whole semester - about what we need to get some foundations of mathematics and theoretical CS percolating into the heads of our undergrads again. As usual, YMMV, this is only IMNSHO, and expect no mollycoddling.

( What makes a computer scientist? )
( A proposed partial list of essentials )

( General Mathematics )

This week, we're going to have the Accreditation Board of Engineering Technology (ABET) visit. It's an interesting experience, one that all "properly certified" engineering programs go through every six years.

I remember the last one, when I was new to the job, though I had a teaching assistant devoted full-time to my course then (masaga has been my "0.2 time" TA, meaning he works on my course for up to about 8-10 hours a week, and on Torben Amtoft's course the rest of the time). Thus, Songwei had more time to spend on ABET tasks than masaga (who has nevertheless been doing a good job).

I'm not worried, as we have a solid curriculum, are serious about this, and have been through it many times. It's a learning experience for both of us, though, as ABET is all about undergrad curricula, and my two courses that are being reviewed (CIS 730, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, and CIS 736, Computer Graphics), are both mixed undergrad and grad courses. Also, accreditators are not always in the department's field, nor in academia, so there are some cultural boundaries to cross.

Anyhow, I'll keep you posted. The accreditation visit happens next week. We've been putting finishing touches on the schedule, and putting out the portfolio documents that were collected last fall and this past spring. It's something like a restaurant review, though it isn't unannounced.

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Banazir