Teaching Computer Science in Canada

Last week I went to the annual meeting of the Chairs and Directors of Computer Science Departments and Schools of Canada (CACS/AIC). It's a very sociable meeting where chairs exchange news, discuss strategic issues, new educational initiatives and also provide one another a sounding board for problems and concerns. In addition to the normally good company, I had a chance to hang out with my old friend and office mate from graduate school, Jim Hoover whom I had not seen for over a decade. It was also a treat to talk to Sven Dickenson who is now chair at U Toronto where I did my own gradate work.

Some of the news tidbits (and restatements of established phenomena) are that :

Computer Science enrollment is still rising almost everywhere, just as in the USA.

Propoective grad students can apply for an NSERC scholships to as many schools as they want, and take the offer at whatever school gives them one, but NSERC scholarships are no longer portable between schools. This has a substantial impact of the strategy to be used for graduate student who need a scholarship.

Postdocs are becoming much more commonplace as a prelude for a faculty job or top-flight research positions. The worrisome issue is that NSERC funding levels do not allow Canadian professors to hire postdoctoral fellows very easily.

The "Common CV" is becoming the standard application format for NSERC applications. This implies a lot of hassle and annoyance for most professors. For professors who apply for funding in a given year, the letter of intent and at least a preliminary (yet complete) version of the common CV must be ready by August 1st.

Several schools are using embedded systems, or some kind of mobile hardware, as a key motivational platform for introductory computer science. This is a trend I had expected but it is moving more quickly than I had ever anticipated.