College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

• State of computer science
  

  Decreasing undergraduate enrollment changes focus of department.

  
  You would think that a drop in enrollment would be met with nervousness.
  
  That's not the case in Iowa State's Department of Computer Science.
  
  When the IT bubble burst after 9-11, enrollment in computer science programs at colleges and universities across the nation dropped with it.
  
  Undergraduate enrollments that were bursting at the seams were now more manageable.
  
  That was the case at Iowa State where undergraduate computer science enrollment fell almost 100 students per year from a high student count of over 600 to a more feasible 385 in the 2005 fall semester.
  
  The drop in enrollment meant that the Department of Computer Science could concentrate on other activities.
  
  On graduate student enrollment for one where the number of students seeking master's and Ph.D. degrees in computer science at Iowa State has almost doubled the past three years. There are approximately 150 students seeking a graduate computer science degree including 100 Ph.D. students.
  
  "The decline in undergraduate enrollment meant we had some really good gains in the graduate program,” said Carl Chang, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science. "With this enrollment change our focus has obviously shifted into a much higher quality research program in the department, technology transfer and integrating research into our teaching and curriculum.
  
  "We (the department) were able to take advantage of the last five years' downward trend nationally in undergraduate computer science enrollment"
  
  Chang says there is now much more energy and synergy in the department's graduate program.
  
  "In the past when we had large undergraduate enrollments we didn't have the time nor the resources to have a high quality research program,” he said.
  
  With state funding reduced since 9-11, a greater burden has fallen to faculty members to produce grants to help provide external funding and research opportunities for the graduate students.
  
  This current fiscal year Chang estimates that the Department of Computer Science has contribute to active research that amounts to $18-$21 million.
  
  This external funding includes where a computer science faculty member is either the project's principal investigator (PI) or Co-PI.
  
  Chang says faculty in the department are working with departments, institutes and centers across campus including statistics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, the biological (life) sciences, the Plant Sciences Institute, and the Colleges of Agriculture, Business and Human Sciences.
  
  "We play an important role in these projects,” Chang said. "The department has come a long way from the largely teaching department to a major research force on campus while still maintaining a high quality education program"
  
  Over the past few years, the department has recruited and retained several strong faculty members including a Fellow of IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator award recipient, four NSF career awardees and editors of many scientific journals.
  
  Computer science faculty members regularly serve on scientific review panels for national and international funding agencies.
  
  New faculty have arrived to help further a robust program in experimental computing.
  
  "Our junior faculty have the potential to continue to shine in their research areas as well as to participate in multi-disciplinary research projects,” Chang said.
  
  Chang says the department serves significant instructional needs at Iowa State and has actively engaged learner-centered distance education paradigms. Additional computer courses are currently being planned.
  
  "There is a perception that computer science is all about writing programs,” he said. "That's not the whole function of computer science. It's really a rich area"
  
  To that end the department has developed new experimental courses in computer science not only to enrich the curriculum but also to expand students' horizons, giving them a leg up in the job market.
  
  One example is Computer Science 252, a Linux workshop where students build a computer from scratch. Another example is the department's SMART House Lab where undergraduate students have an opportunity to combine research activities with hands-on course projects.
  
  These additions to the undergraduate and graduate programs have improved the quality of the department, Chang feels. In the last National Research Council (NRC) rankings in 1992, the department was ranked 78th. With the additional graduate students and other improvements, Chang feels the department would probably be ranked in the top 50.
  
  The ultimate goal is to establish a departmental ranking between 30 and 40.
  
  "Computer science constitutes the foundation for information technology,” Chang said. "It is imperative for Iowa State to maintain a reputable computer science program that is top rated in Iowa and known to the world"
  
  To make that happen Chang says the infrastructure in the department needs to be improved. Space for faculty offices and laboratories has increased from 16,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet in recent years.
  
  At the same time, however, the size of the department's faculty doubled.
  
  "Our space issue is our number one challenge,” Chang said. "We are currently well below the national norm and many of our competitors have built or scheduled to move into new buildings in the past five years"
  
  The space issue notwithstanding, Chang feels things are looking up for the Department of Computer Science.
  
  "We're on the right track,” he said, "and once we receive additional space we will be able to compete on an equal footing with other nationally-known computer science departments"

Johnny Wong and Carl Chang in Department of Computer Science's SMART House

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January 9-22, 2006

Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111. Published by: University Relations, online@iastate.edu. Copyright © 1995-2004, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.

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