Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
attention to the applied work necessary to educate programmers and
systems analysts for the real world.”
72
Later that same year, in his Turing
Award lecture titled “One Man's View of Computer Science,” Bell
Laboratories research scientist Richard Hamming criticized the ACM's
recently released Curriculum '68 report for its overemphasis on theory:
At present there is a fl avor of “game-playing” about many courses in computer
science. I hear repeatedly from friends who want to hire good software people
that they have found the specialist in computer science is someone they do not
want. Their experience is that graduates in our programs seem to be mainly
interested in playing games, making fancy programs that really do not work,
writing trick programs, etc., and are unable to discipline their own efforts so
that what they say they will do gets done on time and in practical form.
Although Hamming was a fi rm believer in the inclusion of advanced
mathematics in the computer science curriculum, he held that if the dis-
cipline were going to turn out “responsible, effective people who meet
the real needs of our society,” it would need to abandon its love affair
with pure mathematics and embrace a hands-on engineering approach
to computer science education.
73
Industrial employers in particular were becoming increasingly dis-
gruntled with the products of the academic computer science depart-
ments. “Possibly the most blatant failure of our industry has been its
ineffective efforts at communicating with the academic community,”
argued one article in 1970 on the so-called people problem: “Ours is the
fi rst major industry in modern history to develop with only limited
support from colleges and universities. . . . [M]ost colleges and universi-
ties still have not initiated degree programs leading to data processing
careers. Those who do offer computer training frequently give the cur-
riculum a scientifi c orientation, thus ignoring the additional skills needed
by our industry.”
74
Abraham Kandel noted the “vicious circle” of intel-
lectual introspection that followed the minimization of practical pro-
gramming training in the Curriculum '68 guidelines. “Some computer
science departments have done such a magnifi cent job of de-emphasizing
the importance of the experimental laboratory in their program that their
graduates emerge thoroughly unprepared to tackle the intricacies associ-
ated with design work in the real-life world.”
75
Given the perceived incompatibility between the needs of business and
the output of the universities, the rise of computer science as an academic
discipline contributed little to the professionalization of data processing.
Corporate employers began turning to other sources of educated practi-
tioners. A
Datamation
survey in 1972 of corporate data processing
