Interdisciplinary Majors Involving Computer Science

This article discusses the intent and nature of joint majors involving computer science and suggests broad guidelines to motivate and configure the course of study. We argue that a well‐designed joint major is greater than the sum of its parts so long as there exists a significant overlap in subject matter between disciplines which becomes the focus of study. We define the relatedness of the two disciplines involved in a joint major not along traditional lines, but in terms of a primary model for the study of computer science and the broad application of its computer science core curriculum to a variety of other disciplines. We argue that the joint major that includes computer science should entail a substantial theoretic component. This argument bars those combinations that require only programming (or information processing) skills for the joint major. Finally, we suggest, with illustrations, three concrete motivations behind the design of joint majors that include computer science as one of their compo...