Curriculum Design of Computer Engineering Department and Assistive Technology

Abstract

Assistive technology utilizing IT can widen the range of support for handicapped people. It is predicted that the needs for assistive technologies will increase in the future. In order to provide assistive devices, it is necessary to train engineers who are familiar with computer programming and also related IT field and can develop them. This paper introduces the curriculum design of computer engineering, especially computer programming, of an IT department in National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Kumamoto College. The department is named Department of Human-Oriented Information Systems Engineering, aims to train IT engineers who are familiar with IT fields with having creativity and rich emotion. The computer programming education is in a five-year consistent curriculum and is structured so that students can acquire programming skills from the 1st grade to the 3rd grade and apply them into major subjects in the 4th and 5th grades. Computer programming education is positioned as a fundamental and important part of this curriculum. This paper shows that the curriculum of the department fits to curriculum standard in computer engineering, and introduces such subjects related to computer programming, their relevance to other subjects, and specific examples.