Core empirical concepts and skills for computer science

Educators are increasingly acknowledging that practical problems in computer science demand basic competencies in experimentation and data analysis. However, little effort has been made towards explicitly identifying those empirical concepts and skills needed by computer scientists, nor in developing methods of integrating those concepts and skills into CS curricula. In this paper, we identify a core list of empirical competencies and motivate them based on established courses outside of computer science, their potential use in standard CS courses, and their application to real-world problems. Sample assignments that facilitate the integration of these competencies into the CS curriculum are also discussed.

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