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The Department of Computer Science Colloquium Series is generally scheduled for 3:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. on
Wednesdays or Fridays, in the Math & Computer Science Building, Room 228.
Directions to our building are available.
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Colloquium for Wednesday, April 1, 2009
| Speaker: |
Dr. Jeannette M. Wing, President's Professor of Computer Science, Computer Science Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Assistant Director, CISE Directorate, National Science Foundation
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| Title: |
Computational Thinking
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| Abstract: |
My vision for the 21st Century: Computational thinking will be a fundamental skill used by everyone in the world. Just as reading,
writing, and arithmetic are fundamental skills every child learns,
computational thinking is a skill needed for every citizen to function
in today's global society. Computational thinking is an approach to
solving problems, building systems, and understanding human behavior
that draws on the power and limits of computing. Computational
thinking
is the use of abstraction to tackle complexity and the use of
automation
to tackle scale. The combination of the automation of abstraction
underlies the enormous capability and reach of computing. In this
talk
I will argue that computational thinking has already begun to
influence
many disciplines, from the sciences to the humanities, but that the
best
is yet to come. Looking to the future, we can anticipate even more
profound impact of computational thinking on science, technology, and
society: on the ways new discoveries will be made, innovation will
occur, and cultures will evolve.
Teaching computational thinking also raises new challenges for
education, especially in early grades. While we have models for
teaching children mathematics and physics, we do not yet have such
models for teaching computational thinking. Moreover, we have the
unique opportunity to make most effective use of the computer as a
tool
to enhance the learning of computational thinking.
In this talk, I will give examples of computational thinking,
including
ones from our daily lives. It is exciting to imagine the day when
computational thinking will be commonplace.
Bio: Dr. Jeannette M. Wing is the President's Professor of Computer Science
in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. She
received her S.B. and S.M. degrees in Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science in 1979 and her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in
1983, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From
2004-2007, she was Head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie
Mellon. Currently on leave from CMU, she is the Assistant Director of
the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate at
the National Science Foundation.
Professor Wing's general research interests are in the areas of
specification and verification, concurrent and distributed systems,
programming languages, and software engineering. Her current focus is
on the foundations of trustworthy computing.
Professor Wing was or is on the editorial board of eleven journals.
She has been a member of many advisory boards, including: the
Networking and Information Technology (NITRD) Technical Advisory Group
to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Tecbnology
(PCAST), the National Academies of Sciences's Computer Science and
Telecommunications Board, ACM Council, the DARPA Information Science
and Technology (ISAT) Board, NSF's CISE Advisory Committee,
Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Academic Advisory Board, and the
Intel Research Pittsburgh's Advisory Board. She is a member of the
Sloan Research Fellowships Program Committee. She is a member of AAAS,
ACM, IEEE, Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, and Eta Kappa Nu.
Professor Wing is an AAAS Fellow, ACM Fellow, and IEEE Fellow.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wing/
Hosts: Robert A. Walker and Paul S. Wang
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| Time: |
Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 3:45 - 5:00 PM
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| Place: |
MSB, Room 228
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Other Colloquia Scheduled for Spring 2009
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- Wednesday April 15, 2009
Graph sandwich problems
Dr. R. Sritharan, The University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio
3:45 - 5:00 PM MSB, Room 228
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Return to Current Colloquia
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