CSEdWeek: A Q&A with Paul Rosenbloom

Happy Computer Science Education Week! We’ve been posting a series of mini-Q&As with MIT Press authors throughout the week to celebrate. Paul Ceruzzi, author of Computing: A Concise History, along with several other books, kicked us off on Monday, and on Wednesday, we posted a Q&A with Frank Bentley, coauthor (with Edward Barrett) of Building Mobile Experiences. Today’s third and final CSEdWeek Q&A is with Paul Rosenbloom, author of On Computing: The Fourth Great Scientific Domain.

What sparked your interest in computer science?

The sheer fun, and procedural intricacy, involved in converting ideas into working programs; along with the potential this yields for understanding and building minds.

How has the computer science field shifted since you first entered it?

It is broader and more interdisciplinary, yet also more fragmented and technical. What is perhaps the most striking change is how computer science has interpenetrated not only all of science and engineering, but so many aspects of everyday life.

What kinds of changes do you think we need to make in computer science education?

Restructure and introduce computer science in such a way as to yield an understanding of its full scope and coherence; in particular, how it isn’t just about programming or merely a jumble of topics, but a broad, exciting and coherent intertwining of science and engineering. Place it better into context, of the rest of science and engineering, and of the world.