Hello from the Computer Science (CS) Department! We have many exciting updates to share and look forward to many more in the upcoming academic year.
The CS department has enjoyed the steady increase of enrollment of undergraduate students and graduate students over the past years. As of Fall 2023, we have 991 undergraduate students, 489 Masters students and 90 PhD students.
Last fall, we expanded our faculty by six, introducing five assistant professors and one associate professor with expertise spanning programming languages, security, databases, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) with machine learning. We are excited about the arrival of additional faculty members this coming fall.
We offer a cutting-edge curriculum and a variety of degrees. Undergraduates have options among eight specializations, including security, AI, data science, and the newest addition, game development—a collaboration with the School of Media. A recently developed B.S. in cybersecurity and global policy is a collaborative partnership between Luddy, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. This new, first of its kind program provides students with both the technical and policy expertise needed to excel in this rapidly expanding field.
Our faculty continue to make breakthroughs in advancing technology and computer science, and their research are supported by federal agencies including National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health, and DARPA. Recent examples include NSF CAREER awards to Professor Luyi Xing and Professor Xiaojing Liao, Professor Roni Khardon's NSF-funded exploration into stochastic planning and control, and Professor Yijie Wang's NIH MIRA grant for single-cell level gene regulation research.
The breadth of our research encompasses numerous fields, from AI and machine learning to bioinformatics, algorithms, and the emergent field of quantum computing. Professor Zoran Tiganj’s research (presented at the prestigious NeurIPS 2024 conference) links infant development and machine learning. Professor Xiaofeng Wang leads the Center for Distributed Confidential Computing (CDCC), a multi-institutional center that involves seven universities including Purdue and Carnegie Mellon University, to develop solutions to protecting data shared across distributed computing systems such as cloud computing environments. Professor David Crandall leads the Luddy AI institute, which serves as a hub for human-centered artificial intelligence research, education and service at IU.
Our students are remarkable in their achievements. Kenna Edwards - a Computer Science major - is the founder and president of the F1 Club at Indiana University, and an assistant race engineer at Code19 Racing. Our second year Ph.D. student Joshua Crotts has a passion for teaching. He has taught C211 and C212 as associate instructor, and C212 as the main instructor. During this time, he wrote and published his first book titled “Principles of Computer Science: An Invigorating, Hands-on Approach”. He is now working on his second textbook.
With so much to celebrate, I hope you’ll join me in recognizing the great work our students faculty, and staff have accomplished. I invite you to help us meet our goal during the month of May in support of their efforts. We couldn’t do what we do without you.