Include Computational Thinking in Education Urges Expert

Doha, April 14 (QNA) - Computational thinking should be included in educational programmes to enhance the analytical ability of students, a computer science expert has urged.
The President's Professor of Computer Science and Head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University Jeanette M Wing, said, "Thinking like a computer scientist means more than being able to program a computer."
Wing spoke on the subject to students, academics, alumni and other guests earlier this week at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Qatar. She was invited by CMU to speak as part of its Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series.
"Computational thinking is a fundamental skill used by everyone in the world, and should be incorporated into educational programmes along with reading, writing and arithmetic to grow every child s analytical ability," she said.
Computational thinking draws on the fundamental concepts of computer science such as abstraction, problem solving, designing systems and understanding human behaviour, she said.
Mathematics and engineering principles are fundamentals in computational thinking logic, efficiency, correctness, interaction.
"Teaching computational thinking can not only inspire future generations to enter the field of computer science because of its intellectual adventure, but will benefit people in all fields," said Wing.
Computational thinking helps us figure out how to solve problems through reduction, embedding, transformation, decomposition or simulation. Skills that are used every day such as planning, learning, scheduling, searching, making trade-offs - all come into play with computational thinking.
There are many examples of the influence computational thinking has had on other disciplines. From deciding which line to stand in at the supermarket to sequencing the human genome, from air traffic control to the discovery and development of anti-inflammatory drugs computational thinking comes in to play.