Professor David Swayne
William Evans Visiting Fellow

Title:  Towards a Computing Curriculum for Environmental Science

Abstract:  Environmental protection is nowadays unthinkable without the use of information systems and software tools for complex decision taking processes. Many national and international organizations have been and are still building databases of environmental measurements and decision support software, e.g. for environmental impact assessment. Starting in the mid-1980's, a new applied discipline in Computer Science - which we now call Environmental Informatics - evolved very quickly. This particular subject classification is formally recognized, for example by TC 4.6, "Informatik im Umweltschutz -- Computer Science for Environmental Protection" in German Computer Society and WG 5.11 "Computers and Environment"  within TC 5 "Computer Applications in Technology"  in the framework of the International Federation for Information Processing.

Due to the complexity and wide ranging aspects of environmental systems, we are still groping for a satisfactory curriculum. It is thus because of the extreme broadness of the application area on the one side, and the many possibilities of software support on the other side. No one should aim at teaching  more than a rudimentary Environmental Informatics course alone today.

We urgently sought a way to cooperate in teaching, between environmental sciences and computer science as well as between the countries in the EU and Canada.  For these reasons we proposed a multi-disciplinary and multi-national teaching activity. Our goal was to develop a highly innovative curriculum and an organizational framework to teach Environmental Informatics, both for Computer Science and Environmental Sciences. This would be achieved by a modular structure of a course which will include multi-media teaching material delivered on CD-ROM and over the Internet.

The  potential impact of this activity will not only be on our students in Environmental Sciences and Computer Science (who will be better educated),  but also on government planning departments, other environmental authorities and industry, which may be enabled to use this expertise because it will be disseminated by electronic media. The market for this knowledge is huge and  the teaching material available is poor so far, because of the broadness, complexity and novelty of this subject.

When:  Friday, 1.00 pm, 28 August 1998

Where:	  Castle C