Birds of a Feather (BoF) Session

Materials from the SIGCSE 2025 Affiliated event are on the main page. This page is for notes from a related activity at SIGCSE 2025.

Consolidated notes for the Bof Session entitled: Towards a Computer Science Curriculum “Microkernel”

BoF group notes “Defining the Liberal Arts and/or Liberal Arts Computer Science”:

Why is this a top priority for the committee:

• We want to prepare students to have impact in a technically advanced world that is occupied by humans, communities and cultures.
• Creators need to:
  • Think about “should we” not just “can we”.
  • Understand that users are people.
  • Do more than implement specifications.
  • Embody a civic engagement mindset.
  • Recognize that technology is an amplifier.
  • Approach their work ethically and with humility (avoid “White Knighting”)
  • Anticipate and mitigate unintended consequences.

What can the committee or we as a community do to catalyze this work:

• Be intentional about teaching and communicating to students why the above items are a priority for their learning as a liberally educated technologist / Computer Scientist.
• Create / Curate / Disseminate materials that:
  • Infuse this type of thinking across the curriculum.
    • E.g. The Embedded Ethics materials from Harvard
  • Add real world issues and context to examples and projects.
    • E.g. Not compute the average of a list, but find the average water height in a reservoir in different years.
• Facilitate dissemination and adoption of existing materials through:
  • Collection of existing materials.
  • Collection of existing practices.
    • E.g. Team teaching, interdisciplinary courses.
  • Workshops, support groups, peer mentors, ambassadors.
  • Panels

Who should be engaged in this work:

• Important to build support with institutional administration
  • Secure backing and reassurance for “risky” curricular initiatives.
    • They may not work.
    • They may not be popular resulting in not great student evals, which presents a particular risk for more junior faculty.
  • Lower barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration.
    • For example teaching credit assignments that encourage interdisciplinary, team teaching, guest lectures, etc.