Education Upgrade Schools Scramble To Improve Computer Training

FOR THE RECORD (October 25, 1996): Correction: Washington State University offers courses in computer graphics, computer modeling and computer animation. A Oct. 20 story about computer science education may have incorrectly implied those courses aren’t available.

When Jason Baskett decided to become a computer graphics artist several years ago, he enrolled in architecture at Washington State University.

Not that WSU architects were designing cities for Roger Rabbit, but it was the only local school at the time where Baskett could learn computer animation on powerful Silicon Graphics computers, the machines that put the life-like bite in Jurassic Park.

“There’s no degree around here in computer graphics, computer modeling and computer animation, though I envision someday there will be,” said Baskett, who designs and assembles scenes for CD-ROM computer games created by Cyan Inc. in north Spokane.

“The training was on the low end compared to what we do here at Cyan, but I was surrounded by good instructors and knowledgeable people.”

In the rapidly changing world of computer science, Inland Northwest colleges still have some catching up to do.

But most are running hard to keep pace with the demands of businesses eager to employ their students.

For example: Students at Spokane Community College this winter will earn the school’s first computer users certificate, a step toward becoming certified as a Microsoft Corp. software trainer and operator. The schools’ first computer network programmers also will graduate in the spring.

WSU this fall will hire a full-time professor to head up the Spokane computer science and microelectronics program, and beef up computer science laboratories with state-of-the-art electronics, said Bill Gray, dean of WSU-Spokane.

Gonzaga University and other schools have converted all programming instruction to the C++ language, the industry standard. They’ve begun to emphasize object-oriented technology, an industry buzzword for identifying existing computer programs that may be suitable for new tasks.

Eastern Washington University, though relatively obscure in a sea of major universities, is pumping out graduate students who fetch more than $50,000 a year at their first jobs. School officials say they expect all 200 computer science students to land jobs in their field.

“We could have double the number of computer science graduates and they would still all get terrific jobs,” said Steve Simmons, an EWU instructor and director of the software engineering laboratory at the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute.

The heightened demand for graduates has hit schools simultaneously across the country, fueled by the popularity of the Internet and the growth of software development for tasks ranging from checking out groceries to flying airplanes.

Computer-driven skills are increasing in almost every field as businesses install personal computers, network servers and links to satellite offices and World Wide Web sites. In each case, the business needs someone to run the machines, fix the bugs and update the system to keep pace with the competition.

“Graduates are being treated like athletes,” said John Dickinson, chair of University of Idaho’s department of computer science in Moscow. “I don’t want to sound like I’m exaggerating, but demand for computer scientists has literally gone through the roof.”

Some 22-year-old students, Dickinson said, were hired at $52,000 a year when they graduated last spring to take jobs in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. Others received $3,000 signing bonuses. One couple was given his-and-hers automobiles.

The push for computer science students means the schools must allocate more money to train students. They also must compete against industry salaries to lure the best minds to serve as instructors.

At the same time, the number of companies seeking computer scientists with particular specialties continues to grow. That’s making it a challenge for educators to plan training programs that meet certain employers’ needs without becoming obsolete before students graduate.

“You’re not going to go to a university and get the finer points of our industry,” said Bob Stolte, human resources manager for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, a growing Pullman-based maker of protective relays for the utilities industry. “A lot has to be taught here.”

Packet Engines, a Spokane company developing high-speed computer networking links, is one company scouring the nation for talent, in part, because employees it needs aren’t trained by Inland Northwest schools.

“Finding the right people is tedious,” said president Bernard Gaines, who recently bought huge recruitment ads in Seattle, Boston and San Jose newspapers. “We’ve hired very few people who came out of local schools.”

More established companies, however, have hired hundreds of Spokane students over the years. SIRTI’s Simmons said he has placed graduates with Itron, Olivetti North America, Telect and Hewlett-Packard.

To stay current with the changes in computer science, the schools maintain advisory boards composed of company representatives.

Some design specific courses for employers, while others dispatch teachers to company offices to make it easy for workers to be trained in the latest software or computer systems.

“We’re making new connections with the schools,” said Holli Brown, education and training coordinator for Hewlett-Packard, which recently brought in an EWU instructor to teach a crash course on C++.

UI’s Dickinson said the school requires students to design products sought by private companies before they graduate. For instance, one group of students created a system to display satellite video without disruptive space noise.

“We attempt to integrate software engineering design methodology throughout our program,” he said.

At a less sophisticated level, the community college this year enhanced its training to include network programming and the Microsoft certificate course, said instructor Jacquelyn Crowe. That gives students an edge on jobs that require heavy use of software, or training of fellow employees.

Susie Goin, who said she spent 16 years tending bar “in every tavern in Kellogg,” will become one of the first to graduate from the community college’s certified users program.

“I’ve come from the bottom and I’m going some place,” she said, as classmates practiced on some of the 700 personal computers on campus.

Ray Hamel, chairman of EWU’s computer science department, said professors lately have put more emphasis on sophisticated network systems and software engineering to build large-scale computer systems. Software development for the Internet also is hot.

“The day when one person working alone developing piece of software is over,” he said. “To be competitive, the complexity and size of those projects requires a team.”

But building that team is taking the schools and employers longer than they’d like. The mathematics required for advanced computer science degrees scares many prospective students into less demanding disciplines, Simmons said.

“The problem,” he said, “is pretty much summed up by what the Barbie doll used to say: ‘Math is hard.”’

But students who persevere, and scramble to get the training they need, may emerge to find the right jobs at the right time.

“This is, like, the perfect job,” said Cyan’s Baskett. “I love the Northwest and I definitely plan on staying here unless I get some super-chance job offer, and one billion dollars.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo