How Do You Become A Computer Scientist?
Being a Computer Scientist is not about programming; it is about the study of algorithms (a series of steps, understood by someone or something, in order to complete a task in a given number of steps). Many Computer Scientists don’t program at all. Indeed, Edsger Dijkstra once said “Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” • Being a Computer Scientist is all about learning to be a student. Technology changes, new languages develop, new algorithms are devised: you need to be able to learn new things to stay current. • Start with pseudocode. Pseudocode isn’t really a programming language, but it is a way to represent a program in a very English-like way. The most familiar algorithm to you is probably on your shampoo bottle: Lather, rinse, repeat. This is an algorithm. It is understandable by you (the “Computing Agent”) and has a finite number of steps. Or does it … • The shampoo example isn’t a very good algorithm for two reasons: it doesn’t have
