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Cornell Computing and Information Science

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The Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, known as Cornell Bowers CIS for short, is an entity within Cornell University. The college is comprised of the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Information Science, and the Department of Statistics and Data Science.[1] However, as Cornell computer science professor David Gries has said, "essentially it's a college without students,"[2] with students instead being admitted to, and coming from, three of Cornell's regular undergraduate schools: the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.[3] In addition, students from any of Cornell's seven different undergraduate schools can minor in computer science or information science.[3] The college is located in Bill & Melinda Gates Hall near the Engineering Quadrangle on the Cornell Central Campus in Ithaca, New York.[4] The inaugural dean of the college is Kavita Bala.[5]

History

Bill & Melinda Gates Hall, home of the Faculty of Computing and Information Science following its opening in 2014

The college came out of the Faculty of Computing and Information Science, which was established in 1999 to unify computer science efforts throughout the university. The new Faculty's first dean was Robert L. Constable, a longtime professor of computer science at Cornell who specialized in connecting computer programs with mathematical proof systems.[6] The idea of the entity, which Constable had been one of the primary advocates for, was to elevate computer science from the department level to the college level, given its increasingly widespread importance to nearly every area of study at the university.[2] Constable would remain as dean for ten years.[6]

The Faculty of Computing and Information Science emphasized the value of interdisciplinary studies.[2] One initiative of the faculty was to support double majors between computer science and a variety of other subjects in any of the Arts, Engineering, or Agriculture schools; this proved successful in increasing the number of women who were computer science majors.[7]

In 2005, the Department of Statistical Science was incorporated into the faculty.[8]

In 2020, Kavita Bala, who had been chair of the department of computer science, was named dean of the faculty.[9] Then when the college was created later that year, she became dean of it.[10]

Creation of the college came in December 2020 with a large donation from Ann S. Bowers.[10] Bowers, a liberal arts alumnus of Cornell, had been the head of personnel at Intel during a period of rapid growth in the early 1970s; subsequently married Robert Noyce, the cofounder of Intel; was vice president for human resources at Apple Computer in the early 1980s; and later became a philanthropist who chaired the Noyce Foundation following her husband's death.[11]

An additional new building is additionally planned, helped by a substantial donation from the two founders of Wayfair, both Cornell alumni.[12] Graduate student programs in the college take place both in Ithaca and at the Cornell Tech campus in New York City.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Departments". Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Constable, Robert L. (July 21, 2015). "A Conversation with Robert L. Constable". An Oral History of Computer Science (Interview). Interviewed by David Gries. Cornell University Library. See segments at 2:05 and 31:25.
  3. ^ a b "Departments". Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  4. ^ "Leadership". Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  5. ^ "Dean Kavita Bala". Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Steele, Bill (June 11, 2008). "Robert Constable, founding dean of computing and information science, will step down in 2009". Cornell Chronicle. Cornell University.
  7. ^ Klawe, Maria; Whitney, Telle; Simard, Caroline (February 2009). "Women in Computing—Take 2". Communications of the ACM. 52 (2): 68–76. doi:10.1145/1461928.1461947. At p. 71.
  8. ^ Booth, James G.; Wells, Martin T. (2013). "Biometrics and Statistical Science at Cornell". In Agresti, Alan; Meng, Xiao-Li (eds.). Strength in Numbers: The Rising of Academic Statistics Departments in the U. S. New York: Springer. pp. 39 50. At p. 49.
  9. ^ "Kavita Bala Named New Dean of Computing and Information Science". www.cs.cornell.edu. June 5, 2020.
  10. ^ a b Lefkowitz, Melanie (December 17, 2020). "Gift from Ann S. Bowers '59 Creates New College of Computing and Information Science". Cornell Chronicle. Cornell University.
  11. ^ Berlin, Leslie (2005). The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 230, 231, 253, 306.
  12. ^ "Cofounders of Wayfair Donate $10 Million to Cornell". The Boston Globe. September 21, 2021. p. B6 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Graduate Opportunities". Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
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