College of Computing initiative focuses on digital skills across majors

Lawson joined Jennifer Drake, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs; Donovan Anderson, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and Linda Lewandowski, dean of the Kirkhof College of Nursing, in discussing how interdisciplinary collaboration will benefit students.

"The humanities, arts, social sciences and sciences bring essential knowledge to bear in the Computing + X equation," Drake said. "Our students will enter careers and live lives that demand the ability to think critically, collaborate across differences and navigate complex, ethical questions, including those about the relationships with humanity, technology and the environment."

Faculty members and department chairs from anthropology, advertising and public relations, criminal justice, English, business, allied health services, mathematics, modern languages, nursing, political science and statistics offered a preview of how programming could be integrated into those fields.

Elizabeth Arnold, associate professor and assistant chair in the anthropology department, said that as artificial intelligence and computing increasingly emphasize human-centered design, anthropology offers a natural complement.

"Anthropology is the study of people, across time, around the world and all the cultural differences that impact how we use technology," Arnold said. "As computing students think about how their technology goes out into the world and across cultures and peoples, then the skills of anthropology have an impact to bring them as well."