'Outside their field' was poor wording on my part. I meant more that it's not the sort of thing that most CS engineers see day to day. People forget things they don't use often.
I think it's important to realize that these are two different things. One is a formal research science, the other deals with practical problem-solving and implementations.
Your typical software engineer likely has a CS degree, but CS researchers and software engineers are two separate populations. Sometimes the same person will do both, but usually not at the same time in their life or for the same organization.
edit: for example, you don't even need a computer to learn computer science fundamentals. A notebook or deck of playing cards will do fine.
As I write this, thearn4's post is fading into the grey, but it's true. That's why I qualified my post with trained as a computer scientist. I have a Master's degree in the field, and I try to keep up with it to some extent, but what I am now is an engineer. Degree or no, I can not currently say "I am a Computer Scientist" with a straight face.
He wasn't talking to software engineers who may have been out of school for a while had time to forget this stuff though; looks like he was talking to a mix of graduate and undergraduate students and some faculty, and I would think stuff like this would be covered during freshman/junior year for sure?
TBH I personally don't always raise hands to such questions though.
> engineers
I think it's important to realize that these are two different things. One is a formal research science, the other deals with practical problem-solving and implementations.
Your typical software engineer likely has a CS degree, but CS researchers and software engineers are two separate populations. Sometimes the same person will do both, but usually not at the same time in their life or for the same organization.
edit: for example, you don't even need a computer to learn computer science fundamentals. A notebook or deck of playing cards will do fine.