The Importance of Teaching Logic to Computer Scientists and Electrical Engineers

It is argued that logic, and in particular mathematical logic, should play a key role in the undergraduate curriculum for students in the computing fields, which include electrical engineering (EE), computer engineering (CE), and computer science (CS). This is based on (1) the history of the field of computing and its close ties with logic, (2) empirical results showing that students with better logical thinking skills perform better in tasks such as programming and mathematics, and (3) the skills students are expected to have in the job market. Further, the authors believe teaching logic to students explicitly will improve student retention, especially involving underrepresented minorities in STEM 1 , whose rate of attrition is higher than for non-minority students. Though this work focuses specifically on the computing fields, these results demonstrate the importance of logic education to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) as a whole.