The University of New South Wales
Minutes of Meeting: CSE-EdC 16/2
Minutes of the meeting (CSE Education Committee 16/2)
of the Computer Science and Engineering Education Committee
held at 12pm Friday 29 April 2016
in room K17-103.
Enquiries concerning these minutes should be directed to jas@cse.unsw.edu.au.
John Shepherd
Chair
Agenda
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Present: John Shepherd (chair), Andrew Bennett, Alan Blair, Richard Buckland, Bruno Gaeta, Annie Guo, Brad Hall, Sanjay Jha, Karl Krauth, Eric Martin, Helen Paik, Arcot Sowmya, Andrew Taylor Apologies: Maurice Pagnucco, Fethi Rabhi Absent: - Present / Quorum: 6 / 7 (quorum not reached) -
Minutes of Previous Meeting *
Not yet available
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Reports from Bodies outside CSE
From Faculty Programs Committee: UNSW is setting up a misconduct register. No more PCSs.
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New Course Proposals: Cyber Security
Richard presented (again) his proposal for a Security Stream. He is keen on have a 4-year BCompSci degree, so that we can have BCompSci (Security Engineering). Roll-out: one course per semester. Most courses have pairs (standard/extended). Extended version has higher-level assessment. Wants capability to flip between extended and standard versions during semester. Handbook entries are available; still working on course learning outcomes, but they should be clear from syllabus. Stream contains new courses (COMP6x4x) as well as courses from CSE Networks, EET Networks, and Maths. Sowmya requested that the relationship between courses and the overall structure of the Security Stream be documented in the proposal. AndrewT queries meaning of Extended; Richard says same as other Extended courses in CSE. Alan wanted to ensure that "standard course" students had access to the videos of the "extended" course; Richard noted that that courses will all be MOOCs, so no problem. Sanjay queried whether we need so many (new) courses. Richard noted that there were many distinct course codes, but only really four distinct topic areas in standard/extended forms. AndrewT queried the inclusion of COMP4442 which has not run since 2010.
Alan queried the "explosion" of Security courses, while we still have few courses in other areas (Games, Graphics). People queried the business case and staffing implications. Richard described the business case: Richard teaches two courses per year, CSE hires a new Security lecturer, and other externals will contribute. This covers all of the core courses. Richard will spend all his time on the Security stream from now on; others can develop the new first-year syllabus. The CBA funding will cover the stream for five years. Sanjay worried that there was too much reliance on Richard; Richard countered that once the lectures are video'd there will not be so much reliance on him. All courses run once per year.
AndrewT queried the frequency of offerings; Richard says once per year for each course. Course sizes will initially be capped, but will expand as stream becomes more popular. Once each course is MOOC'd, much lower cost to run. Finding good tutors and mentors is an issue. People were concerned that the resources to run the courses will be high. AndrewT queried whether it would be difficult to find a Security academic; Richard confident that we can, but even if not, there are casuals available. John thinks COMP3441 will eventually need to run twice/year; Richard thinks we can do this with online videos and a casual to facilitate.
Richard noted a very high demand for Cyber Security professionals. On the other hand, recent Security graduates have complained that they cannot get a job. Richard insists on graduating people as well-prepared security professionals.
Richard then ran through details of all courses. Essentially, there is an intro-level course, and then four courses in different sub-topics. Alan and Sanjay queried whether there was enough material for 6UOC in each of the later courses; Richard insisted that there was easily enough material, supported by AndrewB.
COMP9447 remains as a Security Special Project, and the core material from the old COMP9447 has moved into COMP6447. COMP3441 (soon to become COMP6441) teaches a mind-set for security engineering, and is largely a literacy course, with some technical material, and attracts students from a range of backgrounds. COMP6841 has a practical component alongside COMP6441. COMP6441 is the pre-req for most follow-on courses, except for COMP6447, which needs programming background.
Discussion on whether COMP6443 overlaps with COMP4337; consensus is that it doesn't. Query about pre-req for COMP6443; AndrewT thinks that they need some programming background; Richard thinks this can be handled by no pre-req and making clear to students what assumed knowledge is required and providing bridging mechanisms. AndrewT (and others) query whether the outcomes are significant enough to justify a 6 UOC course; maybe the syllabus and course learning outcomes can be re-worded to make clear. Project course will run over summer. External people are available to contribute to the forensics course. And potentially have a mock-trial to deal with legal issues on digital material as evidence. Discussion on how much background in computer systems is needed; COMP1521 probably provides enough, so could make it a pre-req. Finally some consensus on having pre-reqs and allowing LiC to waive them (e.g. COMP3331 and COMP3231 as pre-reqs for Forensics).
Richard will make all suggested changes and circulate for email approval.
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New Course Proposals: CSE Core Syllabus
JohnS presented the new courses and described how they were developed. Alan queried whether COMP2041 and COMP2121 should remain as part of CS core, given contents of new courses. Both of these courses are required (COMP2041 in BINF, and COMP2121 in CompEng), but will need revision. Should we drop HS1917? If COMP1511 is too different to current current COMP1917, will need to revamp material; want to keep HS students in sync with main intro course. Suggestion to keep COMP1511 *exactly* the same as COMP1917. Queries on where networks would be taught? COMP1521. AndrewT queries whether there is enough practical content in the new courses; too much breadth. COMP1531 needs some revision, especially in light of the first course not being in Python.
JohnS said that the precise content of each course was not yet finalised, but not much detail is needed for the AIMS proposals. They can be put up in AIMS as is.
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Program/Stream Revisions: all undergraduate study plans
Most of the streams look plausible. Bruno has concerns about fitting everything into the BINFAH stream. Sowmya queried whether we needed to put these new streams into the accreditation process; JohnS suggested that we simply try to get the current programs accredited, and then revise.
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New Stream Proposal: COMPZ1 Computational Data Science
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Capstone courses for CS and MIT
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A 4-year Degree for Computer Science
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For noting: Abolition of PC grade
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Any Other Business