Abstract

My previous institution, Samford University, has offered for several years a one semester course, Introduction to Computer Science, for students who are not majoring in computer science. This is a service course for the university that can also fulfill a General Education science requirement for nonmajors. Most students come to this course with little knowledge of computing, beyond what they know of their laptop, tablet, or smartphone. As a result, I believed that it would be helpful to provide an appropriate definition of computer science to help students connect the topics in this broad introductory course and to identify how computing affects their daily lives and the world around them.

I will explain how I used a particular definition of computer science in this course as a conceptual framework to introduce various computer science topics and tie them together. I’ll talk about how this definition reinforced the objectives of the course. I will also review ideas for how it could be used as an assessment tool to gauge student comprehension of course material. Finally, I will consider how this might be a useful tool in other computer science courses.

About the Speaker

David Luginbuhl is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Florida Tech. He was previously an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science and Director of the Computer Science program at Samford University in Birmingham, AL. His 40 years of professional experience as a computer scientist include posts in higher education and in management and leadership in government research and development organizations, both as an Air Force officer and civilian. He served as a program manager at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and as Assistant Chief Scientist at the Air Force Research Lab's 711th Human Performance Wing. Besides Samford and Florida Tech, Dr. Luginbuhl has taught at the Air Force Institute of Technology, Western Carolina University, and the Air War College. He has published on theory of computation, software engineering, and undergraduate computer science education.