Response to Wilson: Computer Scientists Should Not Teach Computational Science

Abstract

responding to Greg Wilson's proposal for high-priority topics that computer scientists should include in a one-week course for physical scientists and engineers, Landau objects to Wilson's premise about who should teach whom.He believes computational science needs to focus more on its science and applications, and prefers to tackle the question In preparing students to do computational work, what physical science skills should be taught along with the computing skills? The way computational science is growing now, and being taught by computer scientists, removes the focus on applications as the purpose of the field and as interesting examples. This is problematic for two reasons. First, in order to know what computer science is appropriate for an application, you need to know the science of the application. Second, without applications as the focus in the teaching of computational science, the subject is sterile. It is like the difference between staying up late to read a good book and forcing yourself to plod through a technical manual.Examples from a computational physics course developed at Oregon State University illustrate Landau's view of an integrated approach to teaching computational science, focusing on the science.