By ET

Google blog posted an article on “Strengthening the Study of Computer Science”.

It started with:

At a time when more and more digital technologies are becoming indispensable to millions of people, the field of computer science (CS) is in trouble. Enrollment and retention of CS students, particularly those historically underrepresented in the field (women, African-Americans, Native-Americans, and Hispanics) has declined sharply.

I think the sharp decline in enrollment is really an issue, but the inner-economist of mine keeps saying that there is something wrong with the argument that we are able to address the issue by promoting this major to underrepresented people.

I believe in the invisible hand theory of resource allocation. There was definitely an excess in supply of CS students during the bubble years, but then the students shifted attention to other desciplines. We only have certain amount of brain power in the society, and the flow of these brains to different industries is definitely a good thing for the society as a whole. If computer science proves to be playing an ever increasing role in the society, I’m sure the brains will flow back. Just reward these brains accordingly.

Overall, the marginal decision maker should be indifferent to choose between any major if the market is effecient and can reward the students through the market system.

By ET This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 8:44 am and is filed under General, Random Thoughts, Research, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.