Professor Bareiss Selected as Keynote Speaker for International Symposium
Ray Bareiss, Professor of the Practice and Director of Educational Programs at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, recently returned from a week-long trip to Tokyo, where he was the keynote speaker for the first International Symposium on Tangible Software Engineering Education, sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education.
Dr. Bareiss, along with Software Engineering director Todd Sedano, co-wrote the invited paper for the symposium entitled “Developing Software Engineering Leaders at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley.” The paper focuses on Carnegie Mellon’s innovative master’s degree in Software Engineering, with technical and development management tracks, targeted at working software professionals in Silicon Valley.
“We believe our program to be unique in that it is entirely team-based and project-centered. Students learn by doing as they are coached by faculty in the context of authentic project work, and they are evaluated based on what they produce,” explained Dr. Bareiss. “Leaders in Japanese higher education are seeing a tremendous shortfall in graduates in computer science, software engineering, and in technical fields in general. They have seen that the traditional model of education is not keeping the students engaged, so they are searching for new models to attract and retain students. They are eager to learn from our successful approach.”
Dr. Bareiss is no stranger to designing and implementing successful learning strategies. He was a founder of Cognitive Arts Corporation and served as executive vice president for strategic projects, such as virtual university collaborations and large-scale corporate eLearning initiatives. Prior to joining Cognitive Arts, Dr. Bareiss was Assistant Director of the Institute for the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University, as well as an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Education. Dr. Bareiss specializes in pedagogy for professional education, computer-based learning environments, organizational memory and computer-based performance support, human-computer interaction, and cased-based reasoning.
In developing the curriculum at the Silicon Valley campus, the faculty spent much time gathering industry feedback and current market needs. “In response to our interactions with the Silicon Valley software industry, which is characterized by innovation and short development timelines, the program evolved from one focused on ‘high ceremony’ processes to one focused on agile software development methodologies,” says Bareiss. The teaching methodology has proven successful at Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus. According to annual alumni surveys, eighty-eight percent of the over 400 alumni believe that the program has given them a competitive advantage with respect to their professional peers, and their promotion and salary histories bear out this belief.