ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage
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JOCCH publishes papers of
significant and lasting value in
all areas relating to the use of IC T
in support of Cultural Heritage,
seeking to combine the best of
computing science with real
attention to any aspect of the
cultural heritage sector.
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statistics, and information technology ethics. Each then selects a several-course specialization track, which is interdisciplinary but focuses on providing
depth in a particular domain: computational informatics, information analysis, life science informatics, or social
computing. This program establishes a
strong foundation, domain depth and
interdisciplinary training. However, to
accomplish all of this, it also imposes
on students the heaviest required-credit
burden of any liberal arts major.
The equal participation by the Computer Science and Engineering Division
in the Michigan degree emphasizes the
ability to design an informatics program as a complement to a traditional
computer science degree; indeed, the
Computer Science and Engineering Division continues to offer two traditional
CS bachelor’s degrees (one in engineering, one in liberal arts). One advantage
expected for the contextualized informatics degree is higher enrollment
of women, and indeed, about half the
class of declared majors is female. On
the downside, managing a degree that
spans three colleges and schools is
challenging, with natural hurdles such
as teaching budgets and credit approvals across units.
Looking forward
Informatics curricula are young and de-
veloping, but have proven popular. Indi-
ana has over 400 students in the major.
In just its first year, Michigan attracted
40 undergraduate majors. Evidence
comes also from successful courses
offered outside a formal informatics
program. For example, a computer
scientist and an economist at Cornell
enroll about 300 students annually in
interdisciplinary “Networks,” which
counts toward the majors in Computer
Science, Economics, Sociology, and In-
formation Science.a At the University of
Pennsylvania, “Networked Life” (taught
by a computer scientist) attracts about
200 students, and satisfies require-
ments in three majors: Philosophy,
Politics, and Economics; Science, Tech-
nology, and Society; and Computer and
Information Science.b
a See http://www.infosci.cornell.edu/courses/
info2040/2009sp/
Informatics enables students to
combine passions for both computa-
tion and another domain. Since almost
all domains now benefit from compu-
tational thinking, an informatics pro-
gram can embrace students and con-
centrations in art and design, history,
linguistics, biology, sociology, statis-
tics, and economics. This diversity has
costs, of course. One is that for now,
in the early years, students and faculty
must continuously explain “informat-
ics” to potential employers. Another is
providing strong enough foundations
in both computation and another dis-
cipline to produce competitive, suc-
cessful graduates.
b See http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~mkearns/
teaching/NetworkedLife/
Dennis P. Groth ( dgroth@indiana.edu) is associate Dean
for Undergraduate Studies and associate Professor of
informatics in the School of informatics and computing
at indiana University, bloomington.
Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason ( jmm@umich.edu) is associate
Dean for academic affairs, the arthur W. burks collegiate
Professor of information and computer Science, and a
professor of Economics and Public Policy in the School of
information at the University of Michigan.
