I appreciate the participation in this discussion, especially opinions from Biologists.
As scientists and engineers we use many secondary disciplines to help us in our main field of study. For example, we use mathematics, chemistry, and statistics even though we may not be mathematicians, chemist's or or statisticians. In undergraduate teaching we are generally forced to study these subjects.
In an age of digitalisation and data I believe students must be educated similarly in computer science. We don't want to make them all computer scientists or programmers, but I do believe they should all be given the opportunity to discover the utility and power of computing. That could be a great help in their own disciplines.
The way in which they are taught is crucial. I have met many engineers who were left scared and intimidated by an undergraduate programming course.
All the best
Johan
Any scientist should be capable to work with advanced application programs today. Such as statistical packages, image analysis, macro automation, you name it.
That means they need to understand how the things work and what can be expected as a result. Tweak the application to better suit their needs if that is needed. Or have it tweaked for them. Being able to talk with programmers. That means to understand statistics, understand image analysis, understand basics of the relevant algorithms, understand a bit of coding.
The best way to learn computers is to learn basics of coding. Python, R, ImageJ macros, ...
That does not mean students should be FORCED to learn programming, that means students should be encouraged to learn it and use it in their work. Programming should be a natural part of the curriculum not because most biologists would be coding new apps, but because some will be coding and the rest will be using some others code and would need to understand what's going on in the comp's head.
Dear Loay Al-Saffar,
The biology deals with extremely complex objects. The ability to handle great volume of information depends on skills to apply IT and mathematics to solve research problems. It is useful to learn not only programming languages, but mathematics helping in research and its realisation in software. Student don't need programming everything, but may apply ready scientific packages.
Preprint Intellectual activity, knowledge, information, data... An at...
Best regards,
Konstantin M. Golubev
Thank you Mr. Konstantin M. Golubev for your contribution to the discussion
Thank you Dr. Afraa Ibrahim , especially when it comes to forcing students to study a complete field of study (كما يحدث في القبول المركزي للجامعات العراقية)
As scientists and engineers we use many secondary disciplines to help us in our main field of study. For example, we use mathematics, chemistry, and statistics even though we may not be mathematicians, chemist's or or statisticians. In undergraduate teaching we are generally forced to study these subjects.
In an age of digitalisation and data I believe students must be educated similarly in computer science. We don't want to make them all computer scientists or programmers, but I do believe they should all be given the opportunity to discover the utility and power of computing. That could be a great help in their own disciplines.
The way in which they are taught is crucial. I have met many engineers who were left scared and intimidated by an undergraduate programming course.
All the best
Johan
Thank you Dr. Johan Zietsman for your participation in this discussion
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