Rising Above the Gathering Storm Calvin Lin July 10, 2009
The Golden Egg • Technical innovation is changing the world • Health care • Science • Business • Energy • Communication • Entertainment • . . .
Our Golden Egg • Technical innovation • Has been led by the US • Has fueled the US economy for years
The Problem– Not Enough Eggs • Dire need to strengthen K-12 teaching of math and science • “Rising Above the Gathering Storm”, National Academy of Science, 2007 • CS presents particular challenges
Talk Outline • National response: CS/10,000 • Feedback? • UT response • A few words about the Turing Scholars Program?
The National Perspective • CS/10,000 • NSF-led initiative to increase the # of high school CS teachers by 10,000 by 2015 • Leverage the AP structure • Pre-AP course • Gold Standard AP course • CS A course
Pre-AP Course • Teach computer fluency • Designed for broad audience • Foundations of computing and computational thinking • Inquiry-based approach with exciting modern applications
Gold Standard AP Course • Explore computational concepts in more detail • Includes critical thinking, logic, algorithms • Shows the magic of computing
CS A Course • Similar to existing courses • Students taking it should have greater motivation for programming after taking the first two courses
The UT Perspective • Enhance the UTeach Program to produce more CS high school teachers • Use the UTeach Institute to replicate our success to colleges throughout the country • Recruit more women and under-represented minorities into CS
What is UTeach? • A collaboration between College of Natural Sciences and College of Education to increase the number of K-12 math and science teachers • Sister program exists in the College of Liberal Arts • Sister program recently formed by the College of Engineering
UTeach Degree Programs • Serves three populations • UT undergrads majoring in math or science • Degree holders in math or science • Certified math or science teachers
Undergraduate CNS Majors • Compact 4 year degree program • Students receive degrees from their home department • Students earn teaching certificate from UTeach • Mastery of subject matter + teaching skills • 18 hours of courses from UTeach • Hands-on experience in local schools • Mentoring
Success • Has more than doubled the number of math and science teachers graduating from UT
Success • Higher retention for UTeach teachers UTeach National Average
UTeach Institute • Replicates UTeach to other colleges • 54 pre-proposals from 26 states in 2007 • 13 grants awarded: • Berkeley, Colorado, Florida, Florida St, Houston, Kansas, LSU, N. Arizona, Temple, UC Irvine, UT-Dallas, Univ. of North Texas, W. Kentucky
Current Status • No UTeach certificate in Computer Science
Our Plan • Develop curriculum for UTeach CS certificate • Two populations • CS majors: How to squeeze in 18 hours? • Non-CS majors: How much CS should they know? • Target over-subscribed majors (Biology, Pharmacy) • Convey excitement of CS as it applies to other fields
What Can You Do? • Inspire students to study CS • Make students aware of teaching opportunities and programs such as UTeach
Questions?
The Turing Scholars Program Calvin Lin July 10, 2009
Goals of the Program • Attract top students • Give them a special environment • Offer them great opportunities • Produce the high tech leaders of tomorrow
Benefits of the Program • Challenging honors CS courses • Emphasis on undergraduate research • Small class sizes: • 40 freshmen join per year • A small community within UT
Our Program is Unique • UTCS is top ten CS department • Rice is #20 • A&M is tied for 46th • UT-Dallas is tied for 72nd • No other Texas schools in the top 75
Questions? www.cs.utexas.edu/honors
Why is a Top Ten Department Important? • Research opportunities • Breadth and depth of research opportunities • Reputation • Important for post-graduate success
External Success Summer jobs: • Amazon, Apple, ArenaNet, Cisco, Dell, Deutsche Bank, Freescale, Google, IBM, Intel, Lockheed-Martin, Microsoft, National Instruments, Schlumberger, Sony, Sun, Texas Instruments . . . Summer internships: • Arecibo Observatory, Goddard Space Flight Center, NSF internships at Univ. of Colorado, Univ. of Minnesota, UT-Austin
Fall ’02: Khoa Tran ’06 • Hometown: Vietnam • Research: Spent junior year in Stockholm, Sweden • Double major in Math and CS • Post-Grad: Computational and Applied Math PhD Program, UT-Austin
Fall 03: Shan Wang ’06 • Hometown: Austin, TX • Research: Automatic Knowledge Integration • Commencement speaker • Post-Grad: Computer Science PhD Program, Stanford
Mickey Ristroph ’08Fall ’04: Tarun Nimmagadda ‘08 • Research: Autonomous Vehicle Grand Challenge • Winner: $50,000 RGK Social Innovation competition
Fall ’05: Franzi Roesner ‘08 • Hometown: Round Rock, TX • Research: TRIPS project • Entered as Plan II major • Has already published at top CS conference– twice!
Fall ’06: Chris Wiley ‘10 • Hometown: San Antonio, TX • Double major in Engineering and CS • Currently: Summer job at Google
Help Us Recruit Your Best • Average SAT 1440 • Roughly 50% of admitted students rank 1st -10th in their high school class • But, we look beyond the numbers • Looking for strong math and science backgrounds • Looking for leadership, motivation, involvement, diversity
