Physicians falling from grace; no longer part of the god class

“Human body is getting reverse engineered. Once this is complete, computer science, computational biology, and bioengineering will revolutionize the concept of treatment in the Medical world. ” http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/21274.asp

Perhaps Richard Florida was right. The doctors, lawyers, realtors and accountants are no longer in the driver’s seat. These information-based professions are now relegated to the service class. Eclipsing them are the creative and innovative professions of computer science and other disciplines involving research and development that produce new memes and products that actually grow the economy instead of leaching off it.

Physician income to drop by up to 80%. How could this happen? Health care reform of a different spin; through outsourcing of medical services and by increasing the supply of physicians. Dr. Rahul Raj in New Dehli is already reading my x-rays. To get your creative juices flowing read http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/21274.asp

Take a look at the change in jobs and remuneration in the creative class versus the service and working classes. http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2009/11/18/service-wage-gap/

Keep quiet, though. We would not want all 1,000 bio/pre-med students at the College of Charleston to find out that the upcoming fields in medicine are computer science, computational biology, bioengineering and discovery informatics < di.cofc.edu >.

Get Creative

What is computer science at CofC?

For one example, read this blurb from a feature story in the latest College of Charleston Magazine:

“Though it’s one of the smaller departments at the College, with 15 to 30 graduates each year, and its cutting-edge culture may seem at odds with a campus that prides itself on history, it was a perfect fit for Nafees. The computer lab became a second home. There, the upperclassmen were inviting, and the professors friendly. Classes were small and intimate. ‘It was like getting coffee,’ Nafees says of lectures.”

As if you need another reason to see where a degree in computer science (and specifically one from the College of Charleston) can get you, check out this story on CS graduate Nafees Bin Zafar.

In the year 2020…

Computer Science at the College of Charleston will be…

–Add a comment to share your visions!–

CLforJava Week

CLforJava:

What:
A multi-year, capstone project to create a product combining two powerful programming languages: Java  and Common Lisp. Java is routinely used in most industries.  Evolved from AI research, Common Lisp encourages people to think differently about highly complex problems such as bioinformatics, airline reservations, cell phone billing, Web 3.0, and space station maintenance.
This marriage creates a software meta-tool enabling people to build new tools for tackling the current and future hyper-complex problems.

Outcomes:
Over 6 years, approximately 150 students have experienced working in an open-source project as large, complex and intense as they will encounter in industry. They must learn to integrate all of the skills they have learned, as a combination of the sciences and liberal arts, thereby stimulating the critical thinking skills they will require to succeed in their careers.  The final product may place the College on the map of the Open Source software community.

In celebration of the project, look for balloons with blurbs – in the halls of the CS Department!  Also, don’t forget that on Tuesday, March 17, Jerry Boetje (project developer) will be speaking about the project at the ACM meeting: JC Long Room 221, at 12:15pm.