00100	The Computer Science Department and the Institute for Mathematics  in
00200	the  Social  Sciences  have some interesting possibilities for future
00300	relationships, and this memo is to record some discussions I have had
00400	with Pat Suppes.
00500	
00600		1. As some members of the Department may not remember, we had
00700	a joint arrangement in the past, when we shared the use of the  PDP-1
00800	computer  between Suppes and an NSF supported project on time-sharing
00900	of which I was principal investigator.  The  relationship  was  quite
01000	satisfactory  then,  and it ended with the Computation Center selling
01100	its share of the PDP-1 to IMSS when the NSF project ended and the  AI
01200	Lab got its PDP-6 and moved to Powers.
01300	
01400		2.  This fall, we got a grant of up to $9400 from the Dean of
01500	Humanities and Sciences to pay for running CS206 on the IMSS  machine
01600	in  the fall and spring.  This compared to a bid from SCIP that would
01700	have come to $42,000 for  the  two  quarters  not  counting  terminal
01800	rental  which was included in the IMSS arrangement.  This arrangement
01900	has been satisfactory to me, to the students, and to IMSS.
02000	
02100	Here are some of the possibilities that have been discussed.
02200	
02300		1. To use the IMSS computer for  additional  courses.   Jerry
02400	Feldman  would  like  to  explore  the  possibility  of teaching SAIL
02500	instead of ALGOL W in the spring.  Any such arrangement would require
02600	support  from  H&S  or  a  blanket  permission to convert some of the
02700	Department's provost's funds to that purpose.  Since the 360/67  will
02800	be fully amortized in April 1974, this is a good time to end the SCIP
02900	monopoly on the expenditure of these funds.
03000	
03100		2. It might become desirable for the department to  buy  into
03200	the  IMSS  machine  or  even  to buy it out.  Suppes is interested in
03300	these possibilities.  I would regard this as desirable only  if  SCIP
03400	cannot   be  persuaded  to  provide  good  interactive  computing  at
03500	affordable prices.  Regrettably, this seems quite likely.
03600	
03700		3. I have long advocated  that  the  Department  undertake  a
03800	project  to teach elementary programming and in particular the use of
03900	a variety of programming languages automatically.  This would require
04000	an  eventual  restructuring  of the courses so as to put together the
04100	material that we found ourselves able to teach automatically.  To the
04200	extent  that this becomes possible, professors could spend their time
04300	improving the courses rather than merely as  actors  and  would  have
04400	more  time  for those activities requiring interaction with students.
04500	Suppes is already interested in  this  -  he  specifically  wants  to
04600	develop  a  program  to teach LISP to gifted 10-13 year olds in their
04700	homes.  Moreover, NSF has just announced a  program  for  support  of
04800	innovations in education.
04900	
05000		In  order  to  explore  these  possibilities, I would like to
05100	suggest that we take them up in a  Department  meeting  -  attendance
05200	optional and that some of us discuss them further with Suppes.