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Concentration At a Crossroads

Computer Science Professors Debate Direction Their Program Will Take

"I do value the theoretical teachings of the department and [those] teachings do impact the real world applications we create," says Gusmorino, who is a computer science concentrator.

In order to find the best possible combination of booksellers from which to buy books, Gusmorino relied on techniques he learned in Computer Science 182, "Intelligent Machines: Reasoning, Actions, and Plans."

Michael S. Vernal '01 also defends the program's theory-heavy curriculum as more interesting than an approach that is focused on many specific applications.

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"I'd rather be thinking about big problems that affect a large number of people, rather than sitting behind a desk writing code for some boring software package."

The Job Hunt

Despite the program's current focus on theory, companies such as Sun Microsystems and Microsoft are usually eager to hire Harvard's computer science concentrators when they graduate.

"You'd have to be brain-dead not to recruit at Harvard," Shieber says.

In fact, despite the growth of Harvard's computer science program, there are usually not enough graduates to meet the demand of recruiting companies.

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