Operations Research: Broadening Computer Science In A Liberal Arts College

Operations research, while not traditionally taught at many small or liberal arts colleges, can be a significant asset to the offerings of a computer science department. Often seen as a discipline at the intersection of mathematics, computer science, business, and engineering, it has great interdisciplinary potential and practical appeal, allowing for recruitment of students who may not consider taking a CS0 or CS1 course. A special topics course in operations research was offered by the computer science department at Southwestern University as an upper-level elective, and it was also cross-listed as a business and mathematics elective. Not only did the course benefit computer science majors who appreciated the applications and different perspectives, but it provided a means for the department to serve a wider population, increased interdisciplinary education, and resulted in a filled-to-capacity upper-level course in computer science for the first time in recent memory. This course is now being considered as a permanent elective that will interest computer science majors and minors as well as draw in students from disciplines across campus. For departments with limited faculty resources for teaching non-major courses, offering an operations research course provides an alternative that simultaneously serves the department and the campus as a whole.