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The importance of graduate-level computer science in the 21st-century workplace

The right master’s degree will change your perspective, preparing you for careers in hot button sectors

The importance of graduate-level computer science in the 21st-century workplace

Businesses today face increasingly diverse and complex challenges as we move to digital infrastructure. With technology and data fundamental to most business ecosystems, effective solutions often require an understanding of computer science that is as broad as it is deep.

This demand for big picture thinking is true whether you’re looking at start-ups and tech titans in Silicon Valley seeking to change the way billions of people engage with connected devices or to oil and gas companies bringing enormous computational power to revolutionize the energy industry by extracting resources in evermore complex scenarios.

While an undergraduate degree in computer science provides useful tools to work on these types of challenges when directed, a master’s degree gives you the engineering and system-wide mindset needed to truly identify and deliver 21st-century solutions.

With a master’s mindset, an engineer considers the how, the why, the when and the where — not just the what. This type of thinking looks at an entire system to find patterns, reveal layers and connect the dots to solve problems that might otherwise seem impenetrable. As well as advancing specific technical skills, a well-crafted graduate-level computer science program will help you develop this system-oriented approach to solving problems.

If you choose to undertake the academic journey required to earn your master’s, you’ll be in good company. The world’s leading technology innovators have each fully understood the overall systems in which their invention exists, not just the components that make it work. They excelled at identifying the “right” problems to solve, with bigger-picture thinking and bold action to wrestle with challenges that would be truly world changing. Google’s search engine is more than great coding and data wrangling. Its success comes from an incredibly ambitious remit – its mission statement is “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful” – and the commitment to appreciating and leveraging context and interconnectivity within the wider world to deliver on that promise in remarkable ways.

The right master’s degree will change your perspective, preparing you for careers in the hot button sectors of today and tomorrow. In the life sciences, the field of bioinformatics perfectly illustrates a cross-discipline ecosystem that is receiving enormous interest. Computer scientists are opening new doors in medicine by finding innovative ways to analyze vast amounts of genetic data - a feat that would not be possible without drawing from a wide range of knowledge bases, methodologies and existing technologies.

Leaders in the 21st-century workplace need 21st-century graduate-level degrees. The Rice Master of Computer Science Online Program is itself built with an engineering mindset; we believe the how, why and where of your degree matter as much as the qualification. Learn more about why the Rice online MCS is more than the sum of its parts.