Talk:Starfleet Academy Curriculum

Superceded Content

The old version of this page can be found here.

I wrote this new version sometime around 2003, if I remember correctly. The biggest issue that I had was trying to fit in everything an officer in StarFleet would need to know in 4 years! IMHO, these kids have to learn WAY too much -- just based on what I've seen on the shows. I mean, how could an Engineer possibly learn all of his "core curriculum" AND enough information to be able to repair a Sovereign class vessel when the time came?

Anyway, I tried to come to a suitable premise of what was important to learn before hand, and what could be learned "on the job," so this is it. Hopefully you all find it informative! --Wolf 10:25, 29 May 2006 (CDT)

Just rememebr, Admiral, that the majority of personnel are enlisted, who quite often specialize in an area. Officers are more like managers - they organize and direct those personnel under them, and rely that those people know their jobs and how to do them. A Chief Engineer, for example, probably doesn't know EVERYTHING about engineering, but can organize repair and maintenance schedules, duty rosters, etc, and probably knows a great deal of THEORY without having a lot of PRACTICAL, hands-on experience. So really, they don't need to learn EVERYTHING in just 4 years. Varaan 12:03, 29 May 2006 (CDT)

Of course. But in this instance, we're talking about having to be educated on extremely complex systems that may vary across a wide variety of configurations. You don't know where you're going to be posted when you get out of the Academy, right? So an officer who's an engineering has to know the configuration and repair procedures on the coolant intake valves on a Nova class just as well as he has to know it on an Intrepid class -- while the two configurations might be wildly different. Similarly, while a medical officer will have continued medical training after the "main" portion of the academy, they have to know the variety of medical conditions that affect the major species of StarFleet, which could include Terrans, Vulcans, Andorians, Trill, Betazoids......

Similarly, you have to remember that the Academy is LIKE college/university, but is not the same thing. When you graduate from college, you have, as you said, a lot of theoretical knowledge that should assist you in educating yourself about whatever specific field you end up going into. But here, you have a very specific skillset that must be learned (Engineering, Medicine, Science, Helm...) over the course of four years. --Wolf 15:07, 29 May 2006 (CDT)

Computer Science and Mathematics

I was a bit confused when I read some of the course material. A lot of it actually looks like the kind of material that would be taught in a 20th century university. Indeed, in my RL life I took several of the courses that are offered in this academy when I went to university.

In my humble opinion, object oriented programming will likely have been superseded by some other paradigm in the 24th century. But then again, maybe not.

Anyway, I just thought that a bit more creativity could be employed in drafting this calendar. For example, I shamelessly admit that I added a couple of courses to the math department. The first, topology, has been around since the 1950s. However, the second, solipsistic mathematics is a branch of knowledge I invented as a possible paradigm for understanding matter manipulation in a manner that negated the annoying effects of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. I know solipsistic mathematics doesn't exist, but the term sounded very intriguing and suggestive to me so I added it.