Magazine: Fall 2018 | Volume 25, No. 1
In the academic world, fall signals new students on campus, new professors to connect with, and new opportunities for learning. XRDS reaches a global audience of current and former students,
whose personal experiences have shaped their lives at
computer scientists. With a new school year underway, the XRDS team felt it was important to address a question that many have faced one time or another during their academic careers: What does it mean to be a computer scientist? To answer this question, the guest editors reached out to 18 computer scientists who "demonstrate the breadth of negotiability
within the field." Within the Fall 2018 issue you will find a wide array of topics covered, from sustainability to curriculum design. It is our hope that this issue resonates with the computer scientist who lives within us all.
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DEPARTMENT: Updates
ACM USF: determined students revitalize an inactive chapter
By Anshuman Majumdar
DEPARTMENT: Blogs
How to publish research results for academic and non-academic audiences
The XRDS blog highlights a range of topics from conference coverage, to security and privacy, to CS theory. Selected blog posts, edited for print, are featured in every issue. Please visit xrds.acm.org/blog to read each post in its entirety. If you are interested in joining as a student blogger, please contact us.
By Gustavo Fortes Tondello
SECTION: Features
Computing as an evolving discipline
Throughout computing's history, there have been dramatically different opinions on what computing, as a discipline, is "really" about. Each decade has changed our views of bleeding-edge technology, core knowledge in computing, the nature of computing as a discipline, and the essential skills and competence of computing professionals.
By Matti Tedre
Beyond coding: toward software development expertise
Understanding what it takes to become an effective developer.
By Marian Petre, André van der Hoek
The search for my computer science
A journey spanning Nigeria, the United States, and Tanzania, is one woman's search for meaning and validation as a computer scientist.
By Judith Uchidiuno
Gender and inclusiveness
Various policies and processes have been implemented to bring equality for women in the IT sector. Yet there are various issues faced by women that still need to be addressed broadly as an institutional responsibility rather than a mere brand-building strategy.
By Sadhana Deshpande
The human manual
Understanding how computer systems are built today can help us improve how well we work together.
By Bryan Kim
Computer science as a global language
How computer science helped me become a citizen of the world and the lessons real-life experiences taught me about effectively interacting with other people.
By María Andreína Francisco Rodríguez
How much are the greenland and antarctic ice sheets melting?
Designing better simulation software to prepare for a warming world.
By Josefin Ahlkrona
What is the role of a computer scientist in shaping a sustainable future?
It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the warnings of a disrupted climate system, from melting ice caps to species extinction. But the problems are so far removed, and so large, we often wonder what does this have to do with our work as computer scientists?
By Elina Eriksson
Human values in a digital society
In a period of rapid technological change, there is a risk of ethics taking a back seat.
By Simon Winter
The arbitrary nature of computing curricula
Computing is still a young discipline with new topics emerging daily, spawning an extended family of disciplines, which makes negotiating a curriculum an inherently fraught process that will not meet everybody's needs.
By Tony Clear
Computer scientists in action: Anja Bechman, data science
By Anja Bechmann
Computer scientists in action: Christina Harrington, inclusive technology design
By Christina Harrington
Computer scientists in action: Lining Yao, fabrication
By Lining Yao
Computer scientists in action: Alexandra Jimborean, computer architecture
By Alexandra Jimborean
DEPARTMENT: Labz
Programming languages in security
Principles of Programming Group, Carnegie Mellon University
By Sepideh Maleki
DEPARTMENT: Hello world
Applying data science for anomaly and change point detection
By Oana Niculaescu