The objective of this study is to survey existing and emerging post-secondary computing and technology programs and employment trends in Pennsylvania to determine if college graduates are being prepared for careers in artificial intelligence. Due to low enrollment, colleges and universities are continually revising or restructuring their existing…

Chess programming is an old and venerable branch of game development. In the modern computing environment, it encompasses the development of chess engines, chess user interfaces (UIs), chess tournament broadcast tools, chess databases, endgame tablebases (EGTBs) and opening books. In this paper, the author shares his multi-year experience of…

This article describes the design and initial implementation of a multidisciplinary, integrative learning course on the art and science of virtual worlds. The course combines complementary disciplines -- Computing, Physics, and Narrative Art -- in a single general education course for first-year students. The course attempts to incorporate…

Many computer science programs have capstone experiences or project courses that allow students to integrate knowledge from the full breadth of their major. Such capstone projects may be student-designed, instructor-designed, designed in conjunction with outside companies, or integrated with ongoing free and open source (FOSS) projects. The…

A department of computer science (CS) has faced a peculiar situation regarding their selection of introductory programming course. This course is a required course for the students enrolled in the CS program and is a prerequisite to their other advanced programming courses. At the same time, the course can be considered a general education course…

A department of computer science (CS) has faced a peculiar situation regarding their selection of introductory programming course. This course is a required course for the students enrolled in the CS program and is a prerequisite to their other advanced programming courses. At the same time, the course can be considered a general education course…

Computer programming is challenging to teach and difficult for students to learn. Instructors have searched for ways to improve student learning in programming courses. In an attempt to foster hands-on learning and to increase student learning outcomes in a programming course, the authors conducted an exploratory study to examine student created…

This paper presents a debate between two faculty members regarding the teaching of the legacy programming course (COBOL) in a Computer Science (CS) program. Among the two faculty members, one calls for the continuation of teaching this language and the other calls for replacing it with another modern language. Although CS programs are notorious…

The Computer Science Department at Slippery Rock University created a laboratory for its Computer Networks and System Administration and Security courses under relaxed financial constraints. This paper describes the department's experience designing and using this laboratory, including lessons learned and descriptions of some student projects…

Too few students are entering the workforce with the technological skills required due to several factors, including under-enrollment in the computer-related disciplines by college students. Enrollment in these disciplines has made some progress since the precipitous decline of 2000-2007 and steps have been taken to attract more majors. However,…

Modern robots, like today's smartphones, are complex devices with intricate software systems. Introductory robot programming courses must evolve to reflect this reality, by teaching students to make use of the sophisticated tools their robots provide rather than reimplementing basic algorithms. This paper focuses on teaching with Tekkotsu, an open…

Students in computer science and information technology should be engaged in solving real-world problems received from government and industry as well as those that expose them to various areas of application. In this paper, we discuss interdisciplinary project experiences between majors and non-majors that offered a creative and innovative…

Controversy and fanfare accompanied the announcement in 2010 by Mattel, Inc. of the Barbie® doll's 126th career--computer engineer. Even though women have been and still are in a minority in the information technology (IT) and computer science (CS) fields, enough women voted for the computer engineer as the next career for Barbie® on Mattel's…

Women have made great strides in baccalaureate degree obtainment, out numbering men by over 230,000 conferred baccalaureate degrees in 2008. However, the proportion of earned degrees for women in some of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses continues to lag behind male baccalaureate completions (National Science…

One of the areas where demand has remained strong for MIS students is in the area of database management. Since the early days, this topic has been a mainstay in the MIS curriculum. Students of database management today typically learn about relational databases, SQL, normalization, and how to design and implement various kinds of database…