Running head: IMPLICATIONS OF A COMPUTER SCIENCE DEGREE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 1

TRIDENT UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL

Gordon E Welch III

Module 1 Case Assignment

CSC 111: Foundation of Computer and Program Design

Professor Kiet Tran

24 APR 2011
IMPLICATIONS OF A COMPUTER SCIENCE DEGREE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 2

Introduction

Mankind's ingenuity in creating tools is not limited to those that help with physical tasks.

The ability to create mental aids and delegate functions to those aids allows for more complex

thought, and intern, the creation of more complex aids. Following this pattern, computer science

has evolved along side humans since our first intelligent thoughts. Nowadays, the most apparent

manifestations of computer science are the digital machines known as computers and the

software that makes it possible for us to communicate with them.

Computers are so integrated into the lives of most humans that being well versed in the

workings of them is of tremendous benefit. Of course, the fundamental workings of these

computers are the theories and concepts of computer science. Therefore, a degree in computer

science opens up wide a range of career opportunities.

History of Computer Science

Computer science started when humans began creating tools to help them count and do

simple calculations, rather than doing the whole process mentally. The abacus is one of the

earliest successful human attempts at creating a tool to aid the user in counting. It uses small

beads or stones on rods to indicate values, depending upon which rod a marker was on, it could

represent 1, 10, 100, etc. This is called place value notation and essentially helps the user

remember large numbers. Though not automatic, the abacus is the precursor to true computing

machines which require only the user's input.

More complex tools began to be conceived around the 17th century, driven by the

complexity of calculations being made at the time. Most of these advances where made by

mathematicians in search of a way to automate calculations in order to reduce the high rate of
IMPLICATIONS OF A COMPUTER SCIENCE DEGREE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 3

error made by the people who did them manually. Among these advances is the Pascaline, built

by Blaise Pascal in 1642 (Hoyle, 2006). It used differential gears to perform arithmetical

calculations, thus making it the first mechanical calculator. Several other innovators between the

17th and early 20th centuries expanded upon this concept with the implementation of conditionals,

punch cards, and binary numbers.

With the introduction of vacuum tubes and electrical circuits into computing machines in

the early to mid 20th century, coupled with previous concepts like binary numbers and

conditional algorithms, computations became more complex and automated. Storage systems

such as random access memory (RAM) were developed which later lead to the concept of storing

the program as well as the data in the same place. This made it possible to easily change the

program, thereby making computers more flexible, speeding up the process of computing, and

decreasing the size of computers.

By the 1960's, computers were being used by several universities and corporations for

scientific research. The idea to link computers together to share this scientific data lead to a

great deal of research into networks. ASCII, the first standardized character encoding was

developed which would allow computers to predictably understand each other. Packet switching

was a way for computers to send and receive data in small “packets”, which allowed computers

separated by great geographical distances to communicate over existing phone lines without

using excessive bandwidth. The first group to successfully integrate all of these concepts was

BBN Technologies, funded by a contract with the U.S. Government agency ARPA, awarded in

1969 (Zakon, 2010). This network was called ARPANET, and is the precursor to the internet we

know today.
IMPLICATIONS OF A COMPUTER SCIENCE DEGREE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 4

Computer Science Tools and Concepts

Today the internet is an essential tool to many professions and industries, especially

computer science. It provides a medium through which computer scientists can acquire tools and

distribute and share their work, whether academically or commercially. Another important part

of computer science is the development of programming languages, as well as their use to create

software.

Logic is a fundamental concept in computer science and programming. Logic lets us

infer whether something is true based on established knowledge. Algorithms, another basic

concept in computer science, are made possible by logic. An algorithm is a series of logic tests

that determine a function. At the core of all computations are these concepts. They are layered

in a manner referred to as abstraction so that human input can be reduced to the machine

language of zeros and ones, processed, and then reconstructed as human readable output.

Career Opportunities for the Computer Science Professional

Computer science graduates have a range of careers to choose from. The top two fastest

growing salaries projected through 2014 are software engineering jobs (Morsch, 2006), a career

which a computer science major is well suited for. Computer scientists can choose to work in

artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, or a variety of other specialties. There are

quite a few multidisciplinary fields that computer scientists contribute to as well, such as

bioinformatics and financial engineering.

An education in computer science is very helpful in other fields as well, even ones that

may not be directly related to computers. According to Duncan Buell (2010), the top six traits all

employers want in an employee are skills that computer science students learn during the course
IMPLICATIONS OF A COMPUTER SCIENCE DEGREE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 5

of their degree. It is clear that the analytical and problem solving skills developed while

studying computer science are of universal benefit.

Conclusion

The history of computer science is a rich one filled with creative minds. It is a field in

which such creativity is combined with the analytical rigors of logic to bring about great

advances in technology. Then to make those advances more accessible for all to benefit. Ever

expanding, computer science and its sub-fields create many jobs, and the skills learned while

pursuing a degree in this field are valuable to any employer.

References

Buell, Duncan (2010). What employers want. Retrieved April 24, 2011 from

Computer Science Teachers Association website

http://blog.acm.org/archives/csta/2010/03/what_employers.html

Hoyle, Michelle A. (2006). Computers: from the past to the present [HTML document].

Retrieved, April 19, 2011 from The History of Computing Science website

http://lecture.eingang.org/pascaline.html

Morsch, Laura (2006). What some fastest-growing jobs pay. Retrieved April 24, 2011 from CNN

website http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/Careers/01/26/cb.top.jobs.pay/index.html

Zakon, Robert H. (2010). Hobbes' internet timeline. Retrieved, April 19, 2011 from website

http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/