Now's the Time: Computer Science Must Evolve to Emphasize Software and Systems Engineering with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
This is a position paper proposing a curriculum reform for CS educators and institutions, but it offers no empirical results or concrete implementation, making it an incremental opinion piece.
The paper argues that computer science education must shift from a focus on programming and algorithms to emphasize software and systems engineering with AI, preparing students to design and manage complex AI-enabled systems rather than compete with AI on routine coding tasks.
Computer science (CS) education needs to evolve to support software and artificial intelligence (AI) systems engineering, and it needs to happen now -- precisely because the core intellectual contributions of CS have never been more important. We argue that traditional curricula, built around programming, data structures, and algorithms as ends in themselves, must be reframed so that these topics become foundational building blocks within a systems- and engineering-centered education. Graduates should be prepared not to compete with AI on routine coding tasks, but to design, orchestrate, verify, and own complex AI-enabled systems operating under real-world constraints. More importantly, computer science education should be geared toward preparing students for future disruptions. The broad history of computing is marked by one disruptive technology after another, requiring us to rise to the moment instead of merely acquiescing to it.