Major changes in Waterloo's CS program offering

[Hikaru79]

I know quite a few CS.CA'ers are interested in doing Math or CS-related courses at Waterloo. In the past, the offering has been as follows:

CS 125: Very basic introduction to Java
CS 133: Introduction to Java
CS 134: Introduction to Computer Science (basic data structures, algorithms, etc., also using Java)
CS 135: Introduction to Computer Science (Similar idea to 134 but using Scheme instead of Java)
CS 136 (second term): Algorithms and Data Abstraction (the followup to 135, it is more "advanced" Scheme, leading up to Java)

Those are not official course titles, just my synopsis of them. If you have asked your CS teacher or guidance counsellor or even UW students how CS at Waterloo works, this is what they will have told you.

However, all this is changing. A few days ago, MathSoc has completely, completely revamped the system. Firstly, 125, 133, and 134 have been eliminated altogether. JAVA WILL NOT BE TAUGHT IN FIRST YEAR, AT ALL. Instead, they have introduced a separate stream for CS majors and non-CS majors. The former category will have to take Scheme, either 135 or a new "advanced" course which I will discuss more below. The latter group will be taking a brand new pair of courses taught in Python.

Here is the excerpt from our MathSoc representative

Quote:

The first-year CS curriculum has changed again. Here's what's coming in:

* If you are not in CS, you will take CS115 and CS116, taught primarily in python. These fulfill the CS requirements for all Math majors. CS116 does not fulfill prerequisite requirements for CS241, etc.
* CS135/CS136 are the first-year CS courses for CS majors. However, they are open to anyone interested. CS136 may be taken after CS116 for those who begin in CS115 and wish to continue in CS.
* CS145 is a new "advanced" CS course, which compresses all of CS135 and CS136 in to one course. It is open to anyone interested, and fulfill the prerequisite requirement for CS241
* CS125/CS133/CS134 are deleted.

The main man behind this change, and who will also be teaching a few of these courses and supervising all of them, Prabhakar Ragde, is a very excellent professor and expositor of CS. Whatever you may think of the subject of the courses, they are definitely in good hands.

Also, Stream 4 co-op has been ELIMINATED. It is no more. So if you were counting on going to school during the summer, you'll have to rethink.

I know quite a few people will be excited by these changes (Python and Scheme being essentially the only two options for first-year CS courses), and others will lament the lack of a "popular" industry-oriented language option. I'm pretty happy; Prabhakar is in charge of these courses. They could have been taught in Brainfuck and they would STILL be an excellent, enlightening introduction to CS.

[Cervantes]

I don't think MathSoc is responsible for making the change. I'd be shocked if a student body had the power to delete courses, create new ones, and alter the prerequisites.

Regardless, I'm very happy to hear about this. CS at Waterloo is getting better and better, I think.

[Andy]

Python is awesome. its one of the official languages of Google. Java and C++ being the other two. I don't completely agree with removing stream 4 Co Op though, since that's probably the only reason why I'm getting such good jobs.

[Hikaru79]

Cervantes @ Mon May 07, 2007 6:53 pm wrote:

I don't think MathSoc is responsible for making the change. I'd be shocked if a student body had the power to delete courses, create new ones, and alter the prerequisites.

You're right. That was a thinko or something; MathSoc merely announced the change in an e-mail they send out to representatives, mailing lists, etc. All I know about the moving force behind this is what Jessey told us -- that Prabhakar was behind it.

[Clayton]

Wow, this is awesome! Even more to look forward to if and when I go to Waterloo!

P.S. Hikaru79, I think we're in the clear for this Friday, more details to follow.

[wtd]

Scheme and Python?

Waterloo has aspirations to be the Canadian MIT, I take it.

[Naveg]

Is it not already?

[Hikaru79]

I like to think of it as MIT being the American Waterloo

[Prabhakar Ragde]

Just for your information, a few minor corrections to the above.

CS 115 will use Scheme; CS 116 will move from Scheme to Python.

CS 135 will use Scheme as now; CS 136 will move from Scheme to C.

Thus all Faculty of Mathematics students will have a course using Scheme, followed by a second course introducing an imperative language. This is, as far as I know, unique in Canada, though there are many institutions using the language in the US.

I won't be in charge of all of these courses; I will continue to be course coordinator for CS 135, but it would be better to have different people coordinating the new nonmajor sequence. CS 115 will probably use my CS 135 materials as a base for development, but CS 116 will be mostly new.

The elimination of stream-4 for Faculty of Mathematics students is independent of the above, though it helps in scheduling and delivering all of the first year Math and CS courses. Stream-4 will be replaced by several other streams to ensure that not all students are competing for jobs at the same time, though all of the streams will have students on campus for the first eight months.

None of these proposals are all the way through the approval process, though there appear to be no serious obstacles. They will, if finally passed by the Academic Senate early this fall, take effect in Fall 2008. --PR