CSE: Have we achieved our goals? Or what were they?

Abstract
Since its origins 40 years ago, the goals of Computer Science in Academia, in fact the nature of the subject, have been under discussion. Some see the principal goal as a grandiose wave of scientific innovation and novel technology, others as the education of competent professionals for designing new machinery and software for diverse applications. Efforts in the first area are usually rewarding, whereas rewards in teaching and training are elusive and appear with long delay. Judging from the ever increasing power of modern equipment and the complexity of its software, the success in the first area is evident. Judging from the mediocre quality, reliability, and usability of ubiquitous computing tools, our success in the second area appears as rather doubtful. What went wrong? How can we improve the situation?

Short biography
Wirth Niklaus Wirth has been a Professor of Computer Science at ETH (Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich, Switzerland, from 1968 to 1999. His principal areas of contribution were programming languages and methodology, software engineering, and design of personal workstations. He has designed the programming languages Algol W (1965), Pascal (1970), Modula-2 (1979), and Oberon (1988), was involved in the methodologies of structured programming and stepwise refinement, and designed and built the workstations Lilith (1980) and Ceres (1986). He has published several text books for courses on programming, algorithms and data structures, and logical design of digital circuits. He has received various prizes and honorary doctorates, including the Turing Award (1984), the IEEE Computer Pioneer (1988), and the Award for outstanding contributions to Computer Science Education (acm 1987).

Comprehensive Object-Oriented Learning (COOL)
Education in Informatics: The Road to Take

Abstract
The COOL Project (Comprehensive Object-Oriented Learning) is a 3-year research project proposal launched by by a consortium of four Norwegian research institutions, supported by research institutions in Aarhus in Denmark, and co-operating with test sites around the world.

COOL will contribute to a unifying process- and object-oriented platform for informatics, and produce a "Learning Landscape" of pedagogical and organisational components to be used in a modern and system-oriented education in informatics and related fields. It will provide an alternative to the current pedagogical approach used, commonly regarded as unsuccessful. COOL will co-operate with research institutions in Denmark and with a number of test sites (universities and colleges) around the world, representing a number of language/cultural worlds (Spanish/South American, English/North American, Scandinavian, and perhaps others). COOL will produce an introductory course, supported by a textbook and DVD records containing integrated multimedia material. The COOL Learning Landscape shall allow for alternative courses, adapted to local cultures and conditions.

Short biography
Kristen Nygaard was born in 1926 in Oslo, Norway. At Norwegian Computing Center he and Ole-Johan Dahl developed SIMULA I (1961-65) and SIMULA 67 - the first object oriented programming languages, introducing the concepts upon which all later object-oriented programming languages are built: Objects, classes, inheritance, virtual quantities and multi threaded (quasi-parallel) program execution. He has been involved in the design and implementation of the general object oriented programming language BETA. His current interests are studies of the didactical aspects of introductory teaching of programming, and the creation of a process-oriented conceptual platform for informatics.
He was professor in Aarhus, Denmark (1975-1976) and then became professor in Oslo (1977-1996). His work in Aarhus and Oslo has included research and education in system development and the social impact of computer technology, and became the foundation of what today is called "the Scandinavian School in System Development", closely linked to the field of Participatory Design. In 1987 he was Visiting Professor at Stanford University, Palo Alto,USA, Visiting Scientist at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto and a consultant and lecturer at Apple's Advanced Technology Group. He has received various prizes and honorary doctorates, including the Norbert Wiener Prize (1990), Computerworld’s honorary prize (1992), the Rosing Prize (1999), the A. M. Turing Award (2001), and the John von Neumann Medal (2002). In August 2000 he was made Commander of the Order of Saint Olav by the King of Norway.

Nygaard: www.ifi.uio.no/~kristen/