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Low US finish in the ACM competition

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The University of Illinois tied for 17th in the ACM's International Collegiate Programming Challenge, the lowest finish by the school in the 29-year history of the competition. The top spots are loaded down with schools from Eastern Europe and Asia
- in fact, only four US universities placed among the top 40 finishers.
As your read the first link, you can see this is being reported as
further evidence of a worsening situation for US technical education.

We've been watching recently as overal funding for research is dropping, and enrollment in US computer science programs are declining across the board (here, here, and here).

Our small team that runs this blog can't speak to any grand strategy on
behalf of Microsoft to helping solve this challenge. However our entire
charter is focused on working with the future developers and their
teachers, from high school to grad school, so this is near and dear to
what we care about.

So my question to our readers is: What can - and should - Microsoft do
to help? How can we get students, from high school on up, more excited
about careers in software development? Or even in just getting excited
about the IDEA of development - playing with the tools, building web
sites? How can we help?

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2005
    I believe alot of it has to do with off shoring. I mean why focus on a degree in a field that any company you work for will eventually move off shore to save a few bucks.
  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2005
    I didn't mean to imply that this competition was indicative of the state of US comp sci education as a whole. Rather it was the latest data point in what is being perceived as a growing challenge in education. That's why I linked to some of the other articles as well.

    But the point is well taken about the unique circumstances of the ACM competition, and by no means was I taking a shot at the Illinois team!

    -Kevin
  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2005
    The explanation for the drop is simple. It's the job market.

    When enough incoming students see recent computer science graduates unable to find employment in the field, it is only natural they'll consider other careers.

    Once the job market starts coming back, enrollment should follow.
  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2005
    I disagree that the job market is the major culprit. I think that overall the major culprit is the current education system in the United States and that on average Americans are EXTREMELY lazy.

    There are plenty of jobs in the Information Technology/CS field if you are good and/or willing to work at your job. The key is being passionate about what you do and investing your own time outside of work and class to stay up to date on the current state of technology.

    I am just plain sick and tire of people whining about the economy.

    --Eric
  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2005
    Of course you forgot the fact that the #4 spot was not a school from Eastern Europe or Asia, but from your neighbour to the North, Canada.

    Farhan
  • Anonymous
    May 31, 2009
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