Sunday, January 26, 2020

Quite amazed that Internet search on: improve teaching of software development in Indian CS & IT academia, gives my Dec. 2012 paper as 1st or 2nd result even now in Jan 2020

Last updated 1st Feb. 2020

The screenshots below (from incognito Chrome window to avoid bias towards my stuff) show that search on Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo search engines for term:
improve teaching of software development in Indian CS & IT academia
gives my Dec. 2012 paper (pre-print and not published in peer reviewed academic publication) as the 1st or 2nd result!

The Dec. 2012 paper referenced above is:
Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia by Ravi S. Iyer.
Abstract: https://arxiv.org/abs/1202.1715 , PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.1715 .

I am quite amazed as now in Jan. 2020, it is over 7 years since that paper was authored & updated, and put up publicly on arxiv.org. Yes, I would not have been surprised if the paper showed up after the first ten results or so. But this result is somewhat disappointing as it shows that others are either not contributing to ***publicly available*** literature (on Internet) on improving the poor quality of teaching of software development in Indian academia, or their contributions on it are not being highlighted by top Internet search engines.

[To open pic in larger resolution, right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]




The next set of screenshots show results for the term:
improve teaching of software development in Indian academia
Bing and DuckDuckGo continue to highlight my paper. Google does not show it directly but refers to my associated blog table of contents and my paper title entry in that, as the seventh or so result.






Bing and DuckDuckGo highlight this paper even for the following term:
improve teaching of software development in India
But for the above term, Google does not show any of my stuff (paper or any blog post) in the first twenty or thirty results that I checked.




As I said, I am disappointed as it indicates that perhaps very few people are making ***publicly available*** literature contributions giving their ideas and suggestions to solve, what I presume continues to be, this serious problem of poor teaching of software development in Indian academia in general. There surely would be a few academic institutions in India where it is taught well. But, in general, in UGC & AICTE regulated Indian academia (vast majority of CS & IT higher education institutions in India), I presume that it continues to be taught poorly. The Google search results given below indicate that my presumption is, very unfortunately, right!

The screenshot below gives the top two Google search results for:
poor software development skills in Indian CS graduates

The top result link is: 95% engineers in India unfit for software development jobs: study, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/95-engineers-in-india-unfit-for-software-development-jobs-study/article9652211.ece, published on 20th April 2017 (and updated on 27th Jan. 2018).

It states: "According to a study by employability assessment company Aspiring Minds, only 4.77 per cent candidates can write the correct logic for a programme — a minimum requirement for any programming job.

Over 36,000 engineering students from IT related branches of over 500 colleges took Automata — a Machine Learning based assessment of software development skills — and over 2/3 could not even write code that compiles."

The second result link is: The reason India does not have enough awesome developers, https://www.hackerearth.com/blog/talent-assessment/indian-software-developers, 21st Jan. 2019.

It states: "Of the 6,000 hours devoted to studying, only around 500 hours are actually spent on hands-on lab work. If a student is given so many books to read but not enough time to indulge in practical experience, what can he learn?"
...
"Research says, around 1.5 million engineers graduate every year in India, with 80% not even employable. Then some become teachers. Thus continues the vicious cycle!"

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