This has lead a small group of computer science educators like myself to direct our research effort toward developing OO methodologies that not only scale up to large software construction but also scale down to programming in the small such as designing and implementing data structures.

My research revolves around how to reformulate and re-implement all the common data structures and algorithms as object-oriented frameworks, which then can serve as basic software components with which to build larger components. I believe the OO principles used in building large software can be and should be taught in the first year of the Computer Science curriculum. Students need to be exposed early to solid object-oriented designs and sound software engineering principles.

Correctness, reduced complexity, robustness, flexibility, and extensibility are not just buzzwords. They can be achieved with object oriented programming (OOP) done appropriately and correctly as exemplified by design patterns.

By applying object-oriented patterns to the design of data structures and the development of algorithms, we teach students the principles of programming in the large but yet on a scale appropriate for their level of understanding.

Theses