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| Type | Academic department |
|---|---|
| Established | October 24, 1962 (1962-10-24) |
| Department Head | Petros Drineas |
| Address | 305 N University St ,,,49707 ,United States |
| Website | https://cs.purdue.edu |
ThePurdue University Department of Computer Science is anacademic department withinPurdue University specializing incomputer science. It was the first computer science department established in an American university. As of 2022,U.S. News & World Report ranked the department's undergraduate program 16th[1] and graduate program 20th overall.[2]
The first computer Purdue installed was anIBM card-programmed electronic calculator in 1952 forCarl Kossack's statistical laboratory.[3] In October 1954,Alan Perlis proposed and acquired a more powerfulDatatron 204.[3] It was used to create the Purdue Datatron compiler, one of the first algebraic compilers created.[4] In December 1960,Purdue Research Foundation andRemington Rand came to an agreement to install aUnivac Solid State 80 allowing Purdue to be the first university to schedule its students' courses by a computer.[4] Two years later it was replaced with anIBM 1401 and a planned complementaryIBM 7044 was superseded by anIBM 7090.[3] On October 24, 1962, Purdue's board of trustees approved splitting the college's Division of Mathematical Sciences into three academic departments:mathematics,statistics, andcomputer science.[3] This ratification establishes Purdue as the first computer science department in a US university.[3] The Computer Sciences Center, which had been split from Kossack's original laboratory,[3] would assist with computing services for the entire university and teach programming for machines.[5]
Samuel Conte served as head of the Computer Sciences Center and lead the newly formed computer science department.[6] The department started with seven instructors including Conte.[7]M.S. andPh.D. programs were initially the only degrees offered[7] withB.S. degrees added in fall 1968.[8] Prospective graduate students were required to take ten courses including three from each of the main areas of the department: numerical methods, programming systems, and theoretical computer science.[7] Numeric analysis and theory had well-established foundations for Ph.D. programs to build on while programming systems was more nebulous withSaul Rosen's experience helping evaluate theses.[7]
From 1970 to 1980, the number of regular faculty increased from 15 to 22 but the department still lacked sufficient instructors relying ongraduate teaching assistants.[7] During this time period, the department was rated in the top ten computer science departments but lacked scientific respectability from their science and engineering peers.[7] Several courses required overhauls which improved courses but professors lacked manpower to keep classes current.[7] In 1979, Conte stepped down as department head succeeded byPeter J. Denning.[9]
Student enrollment increased dramatically entering the 1980s from 350 students in fall 1980 to 550 the next year.[10] The university's administration opposed limiting incoming computer science freshmen but lacked the computing resources to support the courses.[7] Denning resigned in 1983 withJohn Rice taking over as acting head and eventually taking up the full role a year and a half later.[11] In 1984, theMemorial Gym was selected to be remodeled and house the department tripling space and increasing the capacity of undergraduate and graduate majors.[12] Following the student enrollment crisis, a five-year plan was developed in 1986 to increase the quality of the department which included new faculty appointments, smaller class sizes, and tripling research funding.[13] That same year, incoming registrations relented—dropping below 200 new students—signalling the end of the undergraduate influx.[7] The growing pains from the 1980s caused the department's national ranking to fall from the top ten to the high teens.[11]
By the mid-1990s, another computer science enrollment wave swept American universities.[11] Conflict over space and resources between Rice andHarry Morrison, theDean of theCollege of Science, led to Rice resigning as head in late July 1995.[11]Wayne Dyksen became acting head in May 1996, replaced byAhmed Sameh in January 1997.[11]
To handle large enrollment increases and to centralize teaching, research, and offices originally spread across five buildings, a new building for the discipline was proposed.[14] A facility costing $20 million was proposed with the state pledging $13 million with $7 million to be contributed by private donors.[15] Richard and Patricia Lawson gave $4.7 million, the largest donation, to the project thereby resulting in the building being named after them.[16] In 2002,Susanne Hambrusch succeeded Sameh as head of the department.[17]Aditya Mathur took over from Hambrusch as department head in 2007[14] but later resigned from the leadership role in 2010 citing a lack of a computer science major in theCollege of Engineering.[18]Sunil Prabhakar was appointed interim head and later became the department head in 2012.[14] In 2019,Dongyan Xu filled the department head role.[19] The head of the computer science department from 2020 to 2023 was again Sunil Prabhakar.[20] In 2023,Chris Clifton became interim department head before being succeeded byPetros Drineas in 2024.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Located in:West Lafayette, Indiana | |||||||||||
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