It was great to have Adam Shwartz, Director of the Jacobs Institute, come to the Rose Cafe and talk to us about the many opportunities available at Cornell Tech. As a computer science major myself, I was particularly interested in what the director had to say about the overall approach of Cornell Tech to education. Specifically, a masters program in computer science is available both in Ithaca and Cornell Tech, so I imagined that Cornell Tech’s program would be fairly different. Indeed, I learned that Cornell Tech places great weight on the humanities in their program, as participants are required to take several classes in areas like business. The director stressed that a lot of computer science students often lack the basic terminology and knowledge in areas such as medicine to effectively communicate with for example, a doctor or a medical professional in order to effectively sell a software application. The goal of Cornell Tech’s program is thus to bridge the gap in areas such as these, which can lead an engineer to be a more effective entrepreneur and also develop a better understanding of what types of products are potentially useful.

The discussion definitely made me more interested in Cornell Tech, as I would definitely consider the possibility of going there for post-undergraduate studies. In general, I think computer science curriculums should involve a healthy dose of humanities, especially because most industry software is not developed for consumption by software engineers and computer scientists, but rather for everyday Internet users and individuals like doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. Thus, gaining an understanding of the desires and terminology of these individuals allows for development of more effective software.