Are they having fun in Shanghai?

Harvey Mudd College is a very expensive highly ranked private school with a strong emphasis on the teaching of engineering and technology. The US News and World Report 2013 rankings have it in 12th place among national liberal arts colleges, second for master's engineering schools and fourth for computer engineering. Even so, it seems that some feel that it is a failure because it is not getting enough women to take courses in key disciplines such as computer science.

The new president, Maria Klawe, is taking care of that.

The new introductory class for Computer Science at Harvey Mudd is designed for those who did not go to computer camp in high school and is supposed to be interesting. Students edit Darth Vader's voice and on one test the answer to every question is 42 ( guess what the media would say if that happened in an underachieving inner city high school). If you are not amused by the joke about 42 you should forget about going to Harvey Mudd.

The course used to be about programming and was dominated by "geeky know it alls" who have now been told to mind their manners and shut up. Programming in Java has been replaced by Python.

"It was so much fun; it was so much fun" said one student.

Also, all female first year students go to attend a conference on women in computing .

And so, at Harvey Mudd 40% of computer science majors are now women. Bridgette Eichelberger switched from engineering to computer science because the fun of engineering was nothing compared to the happiness of computer science.

Meanwhile over at Berkeley, the introductory computer science course is now called the "Beauty and Joy of Computing".

Someday universities in Shanghai, Seoul and Taipei may start turning their faculties of science and engineering into places where the daughters of the 1%, or maybe the 5%, can find fun and happiness and from which  repellent geeks and nerds have been cleansed. Until that happens the universities and corporations of the US have cause to be very very afraid.