By Shandana Mufti

Computer science is applicable to virtually any field, ranging from journalism and economics to healthcare. And to ensure that Northeastern students have the opportunity to graduate with the skills necessary for an increasingly digital world, CCIS launched its CCIS Meaningful Minors program this semester.

“We developed this program because we believe every student should graduate college with the computer science skills they need to succeed in the highly digital 21^st century,” writes CCIS Dean Carla Brodley.

The program allows students interested in pursuing a computer science minor to tie their major into their curriculum. While all students enrolled in a computer science minor must take Fundamentals of Computer Science 1 and 2 and three elective courses, what sets CCIS Meaningful Minors apart from a traditional minor is the opportunity to take one elective from a pre-approved list of courses from other departments.

For example, a journalism student might choose Digital Storytelling in Journalism as an elective. A student majoring in economics could take Game Theory in the Social Sciences or Applied Econometrics. The remaining two electives must be chosen from CCIS offerings, but students can personalize their choices to complement their majors. A physics major might be interested in a High-Performance Computing course, while a linguistics students may choose Natural Language Processing and a biology student would want to take Computational Biology.

“If they want to focus on computer science, that’s great. If they’d like to tailor it more toward their own major, we encourage that as well,” says Jessica Biron, assistant director of undergraduate programs at CCIS. “We really tried to think about what would fit with computer science and what would be useful for all Northeastern students.”

The program has been in the works for about a year, and is part of a college-wide effort to increase interdisciplinary offerings that allow more students access to the skills taught in computer science courses. The college currently offers numerous combined degree programs with more on the way. Recent additions include linguistics and communications.

These new programs are largely driven by student demand, and CCIS Meaningful Minors is a college initiative to make it easier for students to access computer science courses. Right now, just over 130 students are enrolled in minors in computer science or information science. That number is expected to grow as word spreads about CCIS Meaningful Minors, and the college is gearing up for an influx of new students in the introductory-level courses.

“What’s nice about this program is its simplicity,” Biron says. “You have your pick of courses offered university-wide. They’re pre-approved to fulfill the requirements of the minor. It should be nice and easy.”

-As seen in the February 2016 E-Newsletter-