Scholarship

Each member of the Department of Computer Science should be engaged in professional activities of a scholarly nature that reach beyond the classroom. We attempt to describe below the goals and nature of such activity. Our intent is to stimulate the faculty to self evaluation and renewed commitment to the discipline.

The Department of Computer Science treats the expectations of faculty and of professors of practice as being on a spectrum from the academic to the applied. Faculty tend toward academic achievements, while professors of practice tend toward applied achievements.

Definition of Scholarship

Each faculty member should have a special interest in some area that is related to computing. This could be a specialty within a particular area or areas, such as artificial intelligence, systems analysis, or networking; it could be a focus on computer science education; it could involve perspectival study of the relationship of the Christian faith to one’s discipline; or some combination of these.

It is the responsibility of a faculty member to keep abreast of new developments in their area of interest through the study of the literature as well as through participation in professional conferences, workshops, short courses, etc. In addition, each one should be involved in some kind of scholarly investigation or research. This should lead to a sharing of results through colloquium talks, the organization of workshops, presentations at professional meetings, or the publication of books, articles, or technical reports. What characterizes scholarship in the department is that it results in a product that is evaluated by other professional peers, such as a publication, a talk, an expert review, or a software system.

In this context, peers are taken to be members of the academic or professional community with sufficient qualifications and experience to adequately assess the scholarly work. This could include academic reviewers, book publishers, business managers, consulting clients, programming partners, and funding agencies. Peers can include those that are internal to the university or external, where external peers are preferred.

Funding, either internal or external, is valued but not required. Again, external funding is preferred. Similarly, scholarly work with students or external partners is valued, but not required.

Goals of Scholarship

We identify three reasons for encouraging faculty members at Calvin University to be engaged in scholarship. The first goal of scholarship is to increase our knowledge of God's creation, and in so doing increase our knowledge of God. As a discipline, computer science has roots in two knowledge areas: engineering and mathematics. There is some tension in the discipline between these two: engineering emphasizes implementation aspects such as practicality and efficiency, and mathematics emphasizes theoretical aspects such as logic and formalism. Different computer science faculty will naturally have different scholarly interests, with some faculty being more interested in the engineering side of the discipline, and others being more interested in its mathematical side. Maintaining diverse faculty interests is important to a healthy department, and should be a goal in faculty recruitment.

A second goal of scholarship is professional development. Our department specialties are dependent on rapidly changing technology. Moreover, the rate of change seems to be increasing, making it difficult to keep abreast of the changes. However, it is imperative that department faculty do so, for a variety of reasons. One reason is that it renews their enthusiasm for the discipline through the joy of making fresh discoveries. Another reason is that it helps faculty members keep their classes up to date by incorporating appropriate new developments and technologies. Yet another reason is that faculty members actively working in a wide variety of areas demonstrate the breadth of the field. This helps to combat the common misconceptions that the department is merely using applications, or programming. By coming in contact with people who are actively working in the discipline, students can be made aware that applications and programming are but a small part of the field.

A third goal of scholarship is to establish professional relationships that reach beyond Calvin University to the larger community. This both invigorates faculty members and provides opportunities to bring a Christian perspective and witness to bear in the larger academic community. Personal contacts with colleagues at other colleges and universities have the added benefit of making it easier for us to ensure that our program is consistent with those at other institutions, and ensure that our students are being well-prepared for careers as professionals.

Examples of Scholarship

Scholarly activity often results in improved teaching, and consequently there is not always a clear distinction between work in the areas of teaching and scholarship. Scholarship normally involves the following three components:

• Studying — engaging in study or original research. In addition to individual study, this includes participation in departmental and university faculty seminars, as well as short courses and workshops outside of the university.
• Writing — the publication of books and articles, or the development of significant software systems. The nature of such work can be original research or expository. It may include the reviewing and refereeing of scholarly books and articles, the production of textbooks, or consulting and contracting.
• Speaking — presentations such as colloquium talks (both here and at other institutions), talks at professional meetings and workshops, and other presentations to one’s peers.

This list is not meant to be exhaustive; there are other activities that fall under the heading of scholarship, and still other activities that lie in the overlap of teaching and scholarship (such as curriculum development and the supervision of student research and writing). What qualifies an activity as scholarship (rather than just good teaching) is the creation of a product that is evaluated by one’s peers.

Updated in Fall 2024.