Importance, Myths, Negative Images

Importance So, why do we care that we have so few students? Is it a fear for our jobs if we do not have enough students? That is an issue in some places, but there are other issues

Importance According to the World Economic Forum [Forbes 2005] the U.S. has dropped from 1 st to 5 th in the rankings that measure propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by information and communications technology (ICT). 1 The change in the US position was attributed less to actual erosion in performance with respect to its past history and more to continuing improvements by its competitors. The need: an educated workforce that spans the many fields of computing including computer science, computer engineering, information systems, information science, software engineering, and emerging fields that bridge between computing and critical application areas including medical informatics, bioinformatics, and information technology to avoid long-term skills shortages that will cripple our field and industry. 1 Singapore, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark were ranked ahead of the United States

Importance - Jobs to be filled Table 3c. The 10 fastest growing occupations, (Numbers in thousands) Occupation Employment Change Number Percent Home health aides Network systems and data communications analysts Medical assistants Physician assistants Computer software engineers, applications Physical therapist assistants Dental hygienists Computer software engineers, systems software Dental assistants Personal and home care aides Who will do the work if we do not have enough graduates? Notice - if you dont fancy healthcare, computing is it!

Myths There are many and it is hard to say which are the most important to potential students and their parents Some that we hear about: –Nerd image –High stress, in front of a computer all day, no interaction with people, job prospects low, will not make a positive change in the world … Outsourcing makes a good news story. Bureau of Labor Statistics is not so interesting…

Employment by major occupational group Occupational group Change Thousands of jobs % % Percent Computer and mathematical science occupations 3,152.84, Healthcare support occupations 3,492.34, , Computing is second only to healthcare in projected job growth

CS and DB employment Computer scientists and database administrators are expected to be among the fastest growing occupations through Employment of these computer specialists is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations as organizations continue to adopt and integrate increasingly sophisticated technologies. Job increases will be driven by very rapid growth in computer systems design and related services, which is projected to be one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. economy.

Software Engineering employment Computer software engineers are projected to be one of the fastest-growing occupations from 2004 to Rapid employment growth in the computer systems design and related services industry, which employs the greatest number of computer software engineers, should result in very good opportunities for those college graduates with at least a bachelors degree in computer engineering or computer science and practical experience working with computers.

Software Engineering employment Employment of computer software engineers is expected to increase much faster than the average for all occupations, as businesses and other organizations adopt and integrate new technologies and seek to maximize the efficiency of their computer systems. Competition among businesses will continue to create an incentive for increasingly sophisticated technological innovations, and organizations will need more computer software engineers to implement these changes

Negative Image The nerd image suggests dull, hard work devoid of imagination and creativity, with poor working conditions and high stress levels. By contrast, Money magazine [Money/CNN 2006] listed Software Engineer as Number 1 and Computer IT analyst as Number 7 among the Best Jobs in America based on stress levels, flexibility in hours, working environment, creativity and ease to enter and advance in the field, in addition to job prospects.

Input - Process - Output The negative image has not changed, but the response to the image appears to have changed. Perhaps the way the image is processed has changed. What is different about the processing?

The image processors The people responding to the image of computing careers –Do not have to major in a computing field to work intensely with computers. We cannot offer the cool technology as a draw Many students think they know all about computing and dont see the point in studying that. –Other possibilities Hard work to get into the field and stay up to date is not as attractive? Computing is not seen as a way to make a difference in a troubled world?