Higher School of Economics Endorses IEEE Computer Society's SWEBOK and CSDA Programs
The Higher School of Economics has become the latest educational institution to endorse the IEEE Computer Society's Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) and the Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) credential.
Under the agreement, HSE's School of Software Engineering will use the SWEBOK Guide and the CSDA credential to help provide its graduates with software engineering knowledge and skills to make them competitive worldwide. In furtherance of this goal, HSE will subsidize the cost of graduates taking the CSDA examination.
"This certification provides international recognition that our students are highly qualified after absorbing this body of knowledge, and are thus prepared to enter the workforce as bachelor's-level software engineers, contributing to the creation of new and innovative economic models in Russia," said Professor Sergey Avdoshin, head of HSE's School of Software Engineering.
The CSDA, aimed at entry-level software developers, is one of two professional software development certifications the Computer Society offers. The other, the Certified Software Development Professional certification, is tailored to mid-career professionals. For more information on certifications, go to http://www.computer.org/getcertified.
Both the CSDA and CSDP are based on the SWEBOK Guide, a comprehensive document that includes "generally accepted" principles of software engineering. Originally developed in 2004, the to SWEBOK Guide is currently in the process of being updated. For more information on the SWEBOK Guide, visit http://www.computer.org/swebok.
HSE's School of Software Engineering has adopted the SWEBOK Guide as the foundation for its software engineering curriculum in developing its educational programs.
"We used SWEBOK Guide recommendations in our approach, content, and depth, to develop a bachelor's degree program that would advance the careers of our software engineering graduates," Avdoshin said. "Here at HSE, our students are taught useful combinations of skills in economics, management, computer science, and software development to help them excel as software engineers and software project managers."
There is currently strong demand for software engineers in Russia. "The new, innovative economics demand well-educated software engineers in all branches of industry and science," Avdoshin said. "Since software products are based on international standards, people who develop the products should be educated on the basis of the international standards as well. And both the CSDA and SWEBOK Guide provide a way to evaluate that."
HSE is the first university in Russia to endorse the CSDA. The top-ranked Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in the US and the Vellore Institute of Technology have also endorsed use of the CSDA as a training tool for software engineering students.
About the IEEE Computer Society
With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world's leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology, and is known globally for its computing standards activities.
The Computer Society serves the information and career-development needs of today's computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, and online courses. Its Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) credential for mid-career professionals and Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) credential for recent college graduates confirm the skill and knowledge of those working in the field. The CS Digital Library (CSDL) is an excellent research tool, containing more than 250,000 articles from 1,600 conference proceedings and 26 CS periodicals going back to 1988.