Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science

The School of Computer Science (SCS) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA is a leading private school for computer science established in 1965. It has been consistently ranked among the top computer science programs over the decades. U.S. News & World Report currently ranks the graduate program as tied for 1st with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley.[1]

The Gates-Hillman Complex, home to Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science.

In the past 15 years, researchers from Carnegie Mellon' School of Computer Science have made developments in the fields of algorithms, computer networks, distributed systems, parallel processing, programming languages, robotics, language technologies, human computer interaction and software engineering.

History

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On July 1965, a group of faculty, including Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon, and Alan J. Perlis, as well as the faculty from the Graduate School of Industrial Administration (now called the Tepper School of Business), staff from the newly formed Computation Center, and key administrators created The Department of Computer Science, one of the first such departments in the nation. Their mission statement was "to cultivate a course of study leading to the Ph.D. degree in computer science, a program that would exploit the new technology and assist in establishing a discipline of computer science." The educational program, formally accepted in October 1965, drew its first graduate students from several existing academic disciplines: mathematics, electrical engineering, psychology, and the interdisciplinary Systems and Communications Sciences program in the Graduate School of Industrial Administration. The department was housed within the Mellon College of Science.

With support from Newell, Simon, Nico Haberman, Provost Angel Jordan and President Richard Cyert, the department of computer science began a two-year status as a "floating" department in the early months of 1986. Then, the Department began to grow, both academically and financially. In 1988, the Department was officially elevated to the status of a School of Computer Science, among the first such schools in the country.

Structure in the 1980s

During the 1980s, the department offered only a Ph.D. study program, with no master's degree as an intermediate step. The Ph.D. program required a minimum of six years of residency. It was called the "do or die" program among the graduate students, because a student could not drop a Ph.D. and receive a master's degree. It had quickly focused on computer networking, operating systems (Mach), and robotics.

SCS today

Organizational units

Doctoral programs

Academic masters

Professional masters

Undergraduate programs

Student organizations

Women@SCS is an educational program at Carnegie Mellon whose mission is to create, encourage, and support women's academic, social and professional opportunities in the computer sciences and to promote the breadth of the field and its diverse community. Women@SCS has initiated programs, such as the Big/Little Sister program for undergraduates, the invited Speaker Series for graduates, as well as dinners and other social and academic events. Women@SCS also sponsors outreach projects such as "Is there a robot in your future?" workshop for middle school girls. In general, the committee strives to promote a healthy and supportive community atmosphere.

Gates and Hillman Centers

Gates and Hillman Centers
Plaque mentioning gift by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to provide funding for the Gates Center.

The Gates Center for Computer Science and the Hillman Center for Future-Generation Technologies are home to much of the School of Computer Science. The $98 million complex was opened in 2009.[2] It has 217,000-square-foot (20,200 m²) of floor space, including about 310 offices, 11 conference rooms, 32 labs, 8,000 square feet (740 m²) of project space and the Planetary Robotics Center. It also houses 12 classrooms, including a 250-seat auditorium.[3]

Additionally, the Gates Center connects to the Purnell Center, which houses the School of Drama, via the Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge. The bridge represents Professor Pausch's own devotion to linking computer science and entertainment, as he was a co-founder of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center.[4]

Mack Scogin Merril Elam Architects of Atlanta, Georgia were the lead architects.[2] The centers were designed to achieve at least a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver rating.[3]

Traditions

Main article: Carnegie Mellon University traditions

Smiley face

SCS research professor Scott Fahlman is credited with the invention of the smiley face emoticon. He suggested the emoticon on an electronic board in 1982 as a way for board readers to know when an author was joking. The text of Fahlman's original post was lost for nearly 20 years but was later recovered from backup tapes:[8]

19-Sep-82 11:44    Scott E  Fahlman             :-)
From: Scott E  Fahlman <Fahlman at Cmu-20c>

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways.  Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes - given current trends.  For this, use

:-(

Tartan Racing

Tartan Racing is a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon and General Motors Corporation that competes in the DARPA Grand Challenge. The Grand Challenge is a competition for driverless cars sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Tartan Racing is led by Carnegie Mellon roboticist William L. "Red" Whittaker.[9]

In 2007, Tartan Racing won the DARPA Urban Challenge, in which 11 autonomous ground vehicles raced over urban roadways. In the challenge, team vehicles were required to obey all California driving laws, share the road with other drivers and robotic cars, and complete the course in under six hours. Tartan Racing won the $2 million cash prize with Boss, a reworked 2007 Chevy Tahoe. Averaging about 14 miles (23 km) an hour for a 55-mile (89 km) trip, Boss beat the second-place team, Stanford Racing, by just under 20 minutes.[10]

SCS honors and awards

The School established a number of honors and awards.[11]

Faculty

Faculty members from the School of Computer Science have received international recognition for achievements within their fields. These honors include memberships and fellowships in the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Computing Machinery, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.[12] Eleven SCS faculty and alumni have won the A. M. Turing Award, the Association for Computer Machinery's most prestigious award,[13] often called the "Nobel Prize of computing." These include Raj Reddy, Manuel Blum and Edmund M. Clarke of the active faculty, in addition to Emeritus Faculty Dana Scott.[14]

Notable faculty

See also

References

  1. ^ "America's Best Graduate Schools 2009". U.S. News & World Report. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-computer-science-schools/rankings. Retrieved 2009-06-17. 
  2. ^ a b Henry L. Hillman Foundation Gives Carnegie Mellon $10 Million For Research Building in New Computer Science Complex, cmu.edu/news/.
  3. ^ a b SCS Complex Information and Blog » Overview, gatescenter.blog.cs.cmu.edu.
  4. ^ Professor diagnosed with cancer offers his final words for the CMU community, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
  5. ^ Winners Gallery, www.cs.cmu.edu/~mobot/.
  6. ^ Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science 14th Annual Mobot Races, www.cs.cmu.edu/~mobot/.
  7. ^ SCS Day 2008, http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~scsday/.
  8. ^ SMILEY:25 YEARS OLD AND NEVER LOOKED HAPPIER!, cs.cmu.edu.
  9. ^ Tartan Racing @ Carnegie Mellon, tartanracing.org.
  10. ^ Carnegie Mellon Tartan Racing Wins $2 Million DARPA Urban Challenge, cmu.edu.
  11. ^ SCS: Achievements
  12. ^ CMU/SCS::PEOPLE::ACHIEVEMENTS, cs.cmu.edu.
  13. ^ ACM Awards: A. M. Turing Award, awards.acm.org.
  14. ^ SCS FACULTY AWARDS, cs.cmu.edu.
  15. ^ Randy Pausch, cs.cmu.edu.
  16. ^ MacArthur profile, macfound.org.
  17. ^ Google to Finance Moon Challenge Contest, Washington Post.
  18. ^ William L. "Red" Whittaker, frc.ri.cmu.edu.
  19. ^ Fenton 2000, p.197.
  20. ^ Raj Reddy, rr.cs.cmu.edu.
  21. ^ Fenton 2000, p.200.
  22. ^ Robotics Institute: Takeo Kanade, ri.cmu.edu.
  23. ^ Robotics Institute: Mobile Robot Lab, ri.cmu.edu.

Further reading

External links

Academics
Andrew Carnegie, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing slightly left, 1913.jpg
Branch Campuses
Student life
Research
People
Projects and legacies