Fwd: Python use at colleges and universities

Jim Leisy is the publisher of John Zelle's book "Python Programming: An 
Introduction to Computer  Science". Jim sent me the following email 
which I thought everyone would find interesting. It turns out Jim's 
company is in the Portland metro area, so I will be getting together 
with him and exchanging more notes. He sees a real opportunity for 
Python to get broad adoption as the first year comp sci language at 
colleges and universities. The fall semester could be big for Python. 
Schools are struggling with reduced enrollment in CS programs and at 
the same time the complexity of C++ and Java is making it hard to teach 
fundamentals and turning students off. We also discussed the use of 
Python as the programming language used for other disciplines such as 
biology, bioinformatics, chemistry, physics, math, etc.

What Jim could really use is a list of companies using Python, 
especially larger companies, and the college or university they are in 
close proximity to. I passed on 
<http://www.python.org/community/users.html> but we need a better list. 
This is important because students want to be able to find jobs with 
companies that can use the skills they have learned and companies want 
to hire people that know the language(s) they are already using.

This probably ties into a need for white papers and how tos on using 
Jython with Java, SWIG and boost for Python with C/C++ apps and 
libraries. We need to revisit the white paper idea!

Book:
http://www.fbeedle.com/99-6.html
http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/zelle/python/

Conference:
http://www.csc.villanova.edu/sigcse2004/

ka

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Jim Leisy" <[email protected]>
> Date: March 25, 2004 4:17:09 PM PST
> To: "Kevin Altis" <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: Python use at colleges and universities

> <snip>

> A few weeks ago, Python was endorsed at the keynote at ACM/SIGCSE (the 
> annual get together of computer science professors). This plug 
> combined with several workshops gave a solid buzz to Python for use in 
> college. We had a steady stream of professors come through our booth 
> responding to our ad in the program. I think this Fall will see a big 
> shift away from Java and C++.
>
> The number of colleges that have embraced Python is small. Especially 
> in view of the fact that there are about 3800 colleges in the US. Off 
> the top of my head, known Python colleges are:
>
> Lewis & Clark State College, Idaho
> Capitol University, Ohio
> Wartburg College (Zelle's school), Iowa
> Georgia Tech
> Mt Hood Community College
> Minnesota State at Bemidji
> Bryn Mawr College
> Morehead State, Kentucky
> Mississippi College
> Southeast Missouri State
> University of Florida
> Kalamazoo College
> University of Iowa
> Hampshire College
> Kent State
> University of Northern Colorado
>
> Cheers, Jim