A B.S. degree in informatics: contextualizing software engineering education

Software engineering (SE) is very different in focus from traditional computer science: it is not just about computers and software, but as much about the context in which they are used. This means we must teach about software and information, development and design, technical and social issues, while creating solutions as well as understanding and analyzing them. In effect, we must teach a discipline broader than SE or CS alone for SE education to be effective. At UC Irvine, we designed and now offer a program doing just this - a four-year B.S. degree in informatics. The major brings topics in SE together with human-computer interaction, computer-supported collaborative work, social analysis, and management, along with other application disciplines. Here, we discuss the philosophy behind the major, its structure, and the questions concerning SE education that the new major raises.