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University of Illinois Department of Computer Science

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Department of Computer Science
A photo of the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science
TypePublic
Established1964 (1949 as the Digital Computer Laboratory) (1964 (1949 as the Digital Computer Laboratory))
Department HeadNancy M. Amato[1][2]
Academic staff
110[3]
Students5315 (Fall 2023)[3]
Address
201 North Goodwin Avenue
,
Urbana
,
Illinois
,
United States of America
Colors  Illinois Orange[4]
  Illinois Blue[4]
Websitecs.illinois.edu

The University of Illinois Department of Computer Science is the academic department encompassing the discipline of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. According to U.S. News & World Report, both its undergraduate and graduate programs rank in the top five among American universities,[5][6] and according to Computer Science Open Rankings,[7] the department ranks equally high in placing Ph.D. students in tenure-track positions at top universities and winning best paper awards. The department also ranks in the top two among all universities for faculty submissions to reputable journals and academic conferences, as determined by CSRankings.org.[8] From before its official founding in 1964 to today, the department's faculty members and alumni have contributed to projects including the ORDVAC, PLATO, Mosaic (web browser), JavaScript and LLVM, and have founded companies including Siebel Systems, Netscape, Mozilla, PayPal, Yelp, YouTube, and Malwarebytes.

History

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In 1949, the University of Illinois created the Digital Computer Laboratory following the joint funding between the university and the U.S. Army to create the ORDVAC and ILLIAC I computers under the direction of physicist Ralph Meagher.[9] The ORDVAC and ILLIAC computers the two earliest von-Neumann architecture machines to be constructed. Once completed in 1952, the ILLIAC I inspired machines such as the MISTIC, MUSASINO-1, SILLIAC, and CYCLONE, as well as providing the impetus for the university to continue its research in computing through the ILLIAC II project. Yet despite such advances in high-performance computing, faculty at the Digital Computer Laboratory continued to conduct research in other fields of computing as well, such as in Human-Computer Interaction through the PLATO project, the first computer music (the ILLIAC Suite), computational numerical methods through the work of Donald B. Gillies, and James E. Robertson, the 'R' co-inventor of the SRT division algorithm, to name a few. Given this explosion in research in computing, in 1964, the University of Illinois reorganized the Digital Computer Laboratory into the Department of Computer Science, and by 1967, the department awarded its first PhD and master's degrees in Computer Science. In 1982, UIUC physicist Larry Smarr wrote a blistering critique of America's supercomputing resources,[10] and as a result the National Science Foundation established the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in 1985. NCSA was one of the first places in industry or academia to develop software for the 3 major operating systems at the time – Macintosh, PC, and UNIX. NCSA in 1986 released NCSA Telnet and in 1993 it released the Mosaic web browser. In 2004, the Department of Computer Science moved out of the Digital Computer Laboratory building into the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science following a gift from alumnus Thomas Siebel.[11]

Degrees and programs

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Undergraduate

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The department offers 14 undergraduate degree programs, all leading to Bachelor of Science degrees, through six different colleges:

The department also sponsors a minor in computer science available to all UIUC students.

The department also offers two 5-year bachelors/masters programs through the College of Engineering: Bachelor of Science/Master of Science (B.S./M.S.) in Computer Science and Bachelors of Science/Masters of Computer Science(B.S./M.C.S.).

Graduate

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In the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the antagonist and sentient computer HAL 9000 says it was made operational at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois which was meant to represent the Coordinated Science Laboratory where the ILLIAC project was conducted.[12]

Notable faculty

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Notable alumni

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Nancy Amato Named Next Department Head of Computer Science". Retrieved 13 Jul 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Robotics expert to be first woman to lead UI computer-science department". 12 July 2018. Retrieved 13 Jul 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Rankings & Statistics | Computer Science | UIUC". Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Illinois Identity Standards: Logos and Colors". Identitystandards.illinois.edu. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  5. ^ "Best Computer Science Programs | Top Computer Science Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools". Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  6. ^ "Best Undergraduate Computer Science Programs Rankings". Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  7. ^ "computer science open rankings". Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  8. ^ Berger, Emery (10 March 2022). "CSRankings: Computer Science Rankings".
  9. ^ "CS History Timeline | Department of Computer Science at Illinois". Archived from the original on 29 December 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  10. ^ Smarr, Larry (1982). P. D. Lax (ed.). "The supercomputer famine in american universities". The Report of the Panel on Large Scale Computing in Science and Engineering.
  11. ^ "About the Siebel Center | Department of Computer Science at Illinois". Archived from the original on 28 May 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  12. ^ Alfred, Randy (January 12, 2011). "HAL of a Computer". Wired. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
  13. ^ "Vikram Adve named Interim Head of CS @ Illinois". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  14. ^ "William D. Gropp Voted IEEE Computer Society 2021 President-Elect | IEEE Computer Society". 29 September 2020. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  15. ^ "Head of UI's computer-science department leaving for Pitt". 11 April 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
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