History of the Computer Productivity Initiative (CS 410 & CS 411W)
1 History
The Computer Productivity Initiative (CPI) began as a research project supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project was the first attempt at tying together a Computer Science set of curricula courses by providing a project based course sequence that required the knowledge and skills previously learned. Since the completion and reporting of the research success, several courses of similar nature have been developed and placed in use as part of the curricula of other universities.
2 Computer Science
Computer Science traces its foundation to mathematics, logic and engineering. Studies in computer Science range from theory through experimental techniques, to engineering methodology.
The Computer Science curriculum exposes students to each of these disciplines and fosters an appreciation and understanding of them.
3 CS 410 and CS 411W
The capstone Professional Workforce Development (PWD) courses (CS 410 and CS 411W), in a new theme each semester, go beyond the experimental and design approaches of typical computer science curricula by emphasizing the creativity and productivity required for business and industrial applications.
CS 410 is presentation/collaboration intensive, with grading and evaluation of students performed by faculty and industry review boards. Topics include:
- technical research
- market research
- presentation skills
- group collaboration
- budgeting
- presentation tools
- scheduling
- hardware availability research
- system architecture design
- requirements specifications
- simulation
- prototyping
CS411W, is writing intensive, with grading and evaluation of students performed by CS faculty and industry review boards. Documents required in CS 411W include: descriptive papers, requirement specifications, test plans, user manuals.
A working laboratory prototype is developed and demonstrated for evaluation. All student projects can be accessed through this page by utilizing the links above. The products were never developed for production or for sale to the general public.