Fall 2010 CS Undergraduate Studies Committee Notes
Fall 2010 CS UG Studies Committee Meeting Notes Tuesday, October 05,
2010 Here is a summary of today's meeting.
1. We discussed expanding the specializations at the undergraduate level,
to include more than the current 2 specializations discussed at http://www.iit.edu/csl/cs/programs/undergrad/specializations.shtml.
- we all agreed to think about what specializations we could define,
based on each of our research interests o the idea is to ride on the wave
of exciting buzz words, to increase awareness and excitement about computer
science o the goal would be to define 5~8 specialization areas in total
(we currently have 2 specializations)
- we might need other faculty members' input to come up with all areas
of specialization o ideally, we shouldn't have to create too many new courses,
but just to think how to repackage the courses we have to make CS more
exciting (especially to 18 year olds)
- Once we have identified the areas of specialization, work with other
people at the university level to help us figure out how to market these
specializations
2. We need to make sure that outreach activities are happening to Chicago
area high-schools, and community colleges o who is doing them?
- do they have a compelling story (or slides) about CS to make CS seem
exciting?
- are they emphasizing CS much, or is it mostly architecture and engineering?
- thoughts about hiring an administrative staff person dedicated to CS,
to help with these outreach activities, would be quite helpful; if this
is cost prohibited, perhaps share a person with other departments, ECE,
Math, etc
- if such a person cannot be found, perhaps faculty members can each
pick a few high-schools to outreach to; 20 faculty members times a few
schools each, means 50~100 high-schools o how much outreach is happening
to community colleges? is there a clear path (or even agreements with colleges)
for student transfers, on what will transfer, etc?
3. Seek federal funding to be able to give scholarships to students
4. Seek federal funding to create specializations
5. We should try to leverage research, even for undergraduate recruitment,
emphasizing how important undergraduate research is to get admitted to
top graduate programs; this means working with people that advertise the
CS undergrad degree to include things about undergraduate research
6. We should leverage the joint BS/MS degrees, try to emphasize more
that it is possible
November 2010 - Review direct assessment collection procedures