Dev Chair : Do we want scientists or engineers? - Download Squad

Good computer science graduates do not make good software developers. Really, I mean it. But for the polar opposite reason that these two New York University computer science professors think.When I was in high school my physics teacher once told us, "All physics experiments work. They just may not work the way you want them to."This encapsulates neatly what software development is all about. On one hand, it is science. It is deterministic. Each programming language statement performs exactly as stated (baring bugs in the compiler, or the SDK, or the OS). On the other hand, software development is closer to engineering where years of experience allows a software developer to spot patterns in the model and apply them to build a system.Unfortunately, just as in physics, computer science courses do not prepare students for what comes after graduation. Skills that are considered crucial in almost all commercial software projects are either not taught in college or are only touched upon. This disparity between the skills graduates possess and what the industry is looking for means it generally takes one to two years of working in real life project for a graduate to become fully trained.For example, here is Stanford University Computer Science course schedule for 2007 & 2008 (spring, summer, autumn, and winter). There are plenty of computer science courses such as Object-Oriented Programming (in C++), plenty of advanced topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and algorithm design. But there is only one course that teaches software engineering, and one on C# and .Net Framework.Where do students learn about project management, requirement gathering, testing, builds & deployment? Or soft skills such as how to interact with customers and clients? Do colleges expect students to acquire these skills by themselves on the side? How would the students know they are picking up the 'right' skills, and not just acquiring bad habits?Look at it from another angle. How useful is ...