It's been a busy period with the start of the academic term. It appears that based on preliminary estimates enrollment in computer science is up again this year, and by a somewhat larger margin than the year before. This includes both students who are specifically taking a computer science course, as well as students who are doing some other kind of degree but taking just one or a few CS courses to complement their skills.
Presumably this due to a couple of factors: the job market for CS graduates has been strong for years (despite all kinds is misleading rumors), the job offers pretty hospitable conditions, it's very mobile, and the CS skill set is useful, and maybe mandatory, for just about everything. At the Microsoft Faculty Summit this summer I learned that at Georgia Tech (unlike McGill) a computer science course is mandatory for every single student no matter what the major. This seems eminently reasonable. How can you cope with almost any academic discipline without solid basic computer science knowledge and skills? Today, it seems just as necessary as basic math, for for student in the humanities perhaps even more important.
Anyhow, the numbers are up and this is keeping us busy.
18 September
2009
2009
28 September
2009
2009
Every year I try to watch a few meteor showers. This year the conditions for the Perseids, in August, were exceptionally good. I managed to get out a each evening and do some viewing and even snap some pictures.
Here's my favorite picture of a meteor, perhaps a fireball, streaking across the sky North of Montreal.
Meteor trail during the August Perseid shower, 2009
(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)
