<p>^^ The problem is not just Eisenstat, but the overall tone and philosophy of the entire CS Department. Although that might change if CS50 manages to enroll as many students at Yale as it does at Harvard. </p>
<p>@Planner Yale’s hacking culture is only growing (its hackathon doubled in size this year), and many companies are taking note. Many of my friends have received excellent offers from top-tier tech companies.</p>
<p>@4thfloor I don’t know how to answer that - machine learning hasn’t come under discussion.</p>
<p>@gibby That article is actually one with a spin that disappointed HackYale, because it framed the organization as a foil to the CS department, when in reality HackYale strives to complement the offerings of the department, sees immense value in the established curriculum, and would be thrilled with more individuals pursuing the CS major. Also, the author’s assertion that “it’s not the skill set that will get you hired at start-ups like Artsy or Dropbox, or at Facebook or Google” is factually unfounded - the skills covered in CPSC 223 and 323 span the primary content of what is asked on interviews. My first Facebook interviewer, for example, asked me to write an algorithm that would convert a binary tree into a doubly-linked list - without the background of CPSC 223 there is no way I would have been able to begin to answer that question.</p>
<p>Also, Eisenstat is a genius. Just saying.</p>
<p>^^ Eisenstat may be a genius, but making CS accessible to a broad range of students throughout the university was never his goal. I think Yale (the administration and CS department) recognizes this fact, which is why they are bringing CS50 to Yale, hoping that it energizes the department in the same way: <a href=“Why so Many Harvard Students Take Computer Science”>Why so Many Harvard Students Take Computer Science;
</p>
<p>^^^ Interesting, but what does it take to convince Eisenstat that hiring professors in AI (Machine Learning, NLP) or PL/Theory (where Yale used to be very strong) does not constitute selling CS out to vocationalism?</p>
<p>I don’t want this to be a repeat of what happened with Yale’s once-strong Philosophy department, which was reduced to ruins by ideological infighting during the administration of a brilliant but headstrong department head, Ruth Marcus.</p>
<p>If you go back to the article you posted in POST #1 . . .
Yale just went into the black this year after being in the red for the past 5 years, so maybe they will start to loosen the purse strings for the 2015-2016 academic year.</p>
<p>^^^ Or a generous donation 
</p>
<p>@4thfloor I’m not sure where you are getting this idea that Eisenstat doesn’t take fields like machine learning seriously.</p>
<p>@gibby The CS department isn’t suffering from lack of attention - CPSC 112 has doubled in size in the last couple years. It’s plenty accessible to new students who are beginning to venture into CS. The issues are whether to prioritize non-major offerings over higher-level electives (always a trade-off given limited faculty) and whether to water down the content to make the major easier to complete. I don’t think the department needs to be “energized” - if anything the CS department is more open to change and adjustment than most other established departments at Yale.</p>
<p>
If that were true, why is Yale importing CS50? </p>
<p>Maybe it’s because CS50 is doing a better job at reaching non-majors than anyone at Yale. Or, maybe it’s just cheaper to import David Malan than find someone comparable. Bottom line: Yale’s Administration (and the CS department) thinks CS50 will fill a void at Yale.</p>
<p>@Dark Eyes: yes, nothing about Machine Learning specifically; that’s just an example of a post-1970’s area that Eisenstat may find too trendy. But if he’s OK with Machine Learning, then that’s just two hires Princeton made that Yale didn’t. Plus bioinformatics and other post-1970’s areas, you’ve got three hires Princeton just made that Yale didn’t, six hires UIUC made that Yale didn’t (generally higher ranked in research than Yale), etc. That’s my point.</p>
<p>@gibby Sure, CS50 is filling a void, which is the void of non-majors looking to learn just “the code they need” to build apps, start companies, etc. But it comes at a high cost given the department’s limited resources.</p>
<p>@4thfloor Eisenstat isn’t intent on keeping CS rooted in the past - he’s intent on teaching the fundamental algorithms and concepts that have and will continue to underly it. Afaik, machine learning is more about concept and less about a specific language / framework. Eisenstat would be far more opposed to say, a course on Ruby on Rails, than he would be to a course on machine learning. As for specifics of hires, I don’t know the details of which professors were offered which positions, but hiring someone also requires that they be interested in joining the team - are you sure the professors weren’t just more attracted to the other opportunities? Also I think there are departmental hiring caps at Yale as university policy (not really sure why Yale thinks English needs to expand at the same rate as CS though…).</p>
<p>@darkeyes: There are many educators today who believe that a college level intro computer science course, such as CS50, is just as valuable to a liberal arts education as foreign language, or physical science or math or history. A student graduating college, regardless of major, needs to have a basic understanding of code. CS is not just for CS majors anymore; that’s something other selective colleges have picked up on, but Yale’s CS department has been slow, unwilling, or underfunded to implement. That’s the void that I see CS50 filling – and it’s a positive thing. Unfortunately, I think some CS students and faculty are a bit defensive or just not grasping the bigger picture. Yale’s Administration made a decision to help benefit all students at Yale by bringing in CS50 rather than expand offerings within the CS department for those just interested in majoring in CS.</p>
<p>Machine learning is one of the hottest fields right now. Columbia hired away some high level Princeton faculty, that is why Princeton made their hires.</p>
<p>I know of a brilliant CS HS student who met with Eisenstadt and he told her to “go to MIT”. Yale dropped from the top to the bottom of her list. She’s a junior at Stanford now.</p>
<p>^^ Yes, that does seem to be one of the problems. No one can force Eisenstadt to retire, but it is time!</p>
<p>I totally agree that a student graduating college in the modern day needs to have a basic understanding of code. It’s extremely important for a number of reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Learning the basics of how a machine on which we rely daily (hourly?) works has intrinsic value. It’s part of what it means to be an educated individual.</p></li>
<li><p>Programming teaches critical thinking extremely effectively, possibly better than does Math (at least when both are considered at an introductory level).</p></li>
<li><p>Learning how code works is valuable for communicating with developers or tech-savvy individuals - this is an invaluable skill in the modern business world.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So yes, by all means we should offer intro programming. And we do, in the form of CPSC 112, which does not count for the major and whose sole purpose is to introduce students to code. CPSC 112 is further supplemented by the extracurricular efforts of other groups on campus such as HackYale and Float at Yale, which offer courses on introductory CS topics with a practical emphasis. But what we don’t need is for departmental resources, limited as they are, strained to offer an abundance of introductory courses - CS 50 AND CPSC 112 AND CPSC 113 - all essentially trying to achieve the same end of encouraging students to code, at the expense of courses like Intelligent Robotics and Database Systems (one of the department’s best course offerings).</p>
<p>The question is this: who, between Salovey and Eisenstat, is responsible for turning this once-attractive department into a no-hire zone for 10 years, when other departments – Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, Penn, even tiny Dartmouth – have been able to hire in response to explosive student interest, without getting all frazzled by this “theory vs vocational” debate, about which we all seem to agree anyway?</p>
<p>One of the two, or both, need to change.</p>
<p>^^ The Fellows of the Yale Corporation meet in standing committees and ultimately decide funding for the entire university. Salovey is one member of the board (there are 18 others); Eisenstat is not a member of the corporation. See: <a href=“Board of Trustees | Yale University”>Board of Trustees | Yale University; and <a href=“By-Laws | Yale University”>By-Laws | Yale University;
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<p>^^^ A structure like that is not unique to Yale, but other CS departments don’t have this problem.</p>
<p>So yes, either Salovey (and Rick before him) won’t open the purse strings, or he (they) did but the money came with strings attached and Eisenstat said no.</p>
<p>If the former, then why? The mortgage bubble bust is no excuse, since every other Ivy League endowment took 20% - 30% hits in their endowments, but they built up their CS departments in response to explosive growth in the field. It is most certainly not just a matter of money.</p>
<p>If the latter, would Salovey really say: “Here is the money but you can only use it to hire someone to teach Ruby on Rails,” as some of the articles above seem to imply. Then why the 10-year standoff, and what does it take to change it?</p>
<p>Change happens slowly at some institutions, as there are layers upon layers of bureaucracy. I imagine that Harvard isn’t offering Yale CS50 for free, so the CS department probably had to ask the university to finance the cost – whatever that may be. This is just speculation, but next year I could imagine the CS Department steering students interested in an intro course to CS50 (instead of CPSC 112 AND CPSC 113), which would free up Yale faculty to teach other courses. It all might be a budgetary thing: Yale has been holding a tight grip on their purse strings, so it might be cheaper in the long run for the university to pay for CS50 rather than hire new faculty.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why Harvard would charge for something it offers to everyone for free:</p>
<p><a href=“CS50's Introduction to Computer Science”>https://www.edx.org/course/harvardx/harvardx-cs50x-introduction-computer-1022</a></p>
<p>^^ If Harvard is giving CS50 away for free, that would actually be better for Yale. The CS Department could steer students wanting/needing an intro course to CS50, which would free up faculty at Yale and allow them to offer other more sophisticated courses. It could be a win-win for the department and the university. </p>
<p>From everything I’ve read, the differences between CS50 on EdX, and the one that will be offered at Yale, is that Yale’s lectures will be streamed live (as opposed to a pre-record) and that Yale’s faculty will provide support, in terms teaching assistants, office hours etc. In addition, Malan would provide teacher-training to Yale’s CS50 faculty/teaching assistants and might come to Yale for several of the course’s lectures. </p>