Prashant R. Nair, Vice Chairperson, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore, showcased the Amrita Computational Thinking & Problem Solving (CTPS) experience as a case study in Anna University’s Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on “CS6402-Design & Analysis of Algorithms”, conducted from 24th November, 2017 to 30th November, 2017.
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, has been offering an introductory 4 credit course on Computational Thinking & Problem Solving (CTPS) in the first semester to all first year B.Tech students across all disciplines of the institution since 2015. Amrita is one of the early adopters in India of computational thinking and problem solving for freshmen of all engineering programs. The experience of running this course, its course delivery, pedagogy and tools, such as Raptor and MIT Scratch, have been grabbing attention in various international and national fora.
Computational Thinking was introduced by Prof. Jeannette M. Wing, Avanessians Director of the Data Sciences Institute at Columbia University, as a fundamental skill especially for engineering students who are expected to be adept, after they graduate, at solving real-world complex engineering problems. There have been efforts worldwide to bring computational thinking into the schools, as well as college curriculum. IIIT Hyderabad, ACM India council and Amrita are some early adopters in India.
Earlier, a research paper titled, “Teaching Computational Thinking to Entry-level Undergraduate Engineering Students at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham”, authored by Assistant Professor Dr. Shyamala C. K., Associate Professor Dr. Shunmuga Velayutham C. and Chairperson Dr. Latha Parameswaran of the Department Computer Science and Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore, was presented for one of the prestigious engineering educational conferences, IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference, EDUCON 2017 held at Athens, Greece from 25th to 28th April, 2017.
