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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 comprises 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 explained, "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] A variety of degree programs are offered through the college, depending upon the department within the college and the originating college the student is in; the degrees granted include Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science; Master of Science, Master of Engineering, and Master of Professional Studies; and PhD.[1] 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

The college came out of the Faculty of Computing and Information Science, which was established in 1999 to unify computer science-related efforts throughout the university.[6] 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;[2] this was seen as critical given the field's increasingly widespread importance to nearly every area of study at the university.[7] Furthermore, the information science side of the faculty would focus on how computer-related technology was affecting society and the world.[8] According to one faculty member, "Cornell was a pioneer in setting up the CIS structure. A number of other institutions have followed."[9]

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

In 2005, the Department of Statistical Science was incorporated into the faculty.[10] A $25 million donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006 led to the construction of the building named after couple.[7] Constable would remain as the faculty's dean for ten years.[6] When he stepped down from the post, Provost Biddy Martin said, "Dean Constable has been a pioneer in recognizing that computing has become an essential tool in almost every discipline. By conceiving and bringing to life the idea of a universitywide Faculty of Computing and Information Science, he has helped to make that tool accessible in fields as diverse as history, psychology, architecture and plant science."[6]

The Faculty of Computing and Information Science emphasized the value of multidisciplinary 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.[11] Indeed, by 2020 some 43 percent of students majoring in CIS were female, a figure well above typical for the United States.[8] The final dean of the faculty was Kavita Bala, who had been chair of the department of computer science and was named to the position in 2020.[12] Then when the college was created later that year, she became the first dean of it.[8]

Creation of the college came in December 2020 with a more-than-$100 million donation from Ann S. Bowers.[8] 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.[13] She had frequently donated to Cornell in the past.[8]

An additional new building is planned, helped by a $10 million donation from the two founders of Wayfair, both Cornell alumni.[14] By late 2022, plans were underway to break ground on the new building,[15] which is scheduled to be completed by 2025.[9] The new structure would be built adjacent to Gates Hall,[16] on the site of Hoy Field, the longtime varsity baseball diamond (which will be relocated further out from the central campus).[9] The building is intended to help handle a factor-of-six increase in computer and information science enrollments during the previous decade.[16] That increase has led to situations where faculty and other staff are spread across campus and non-majors are not permitted to take upper-level computer science courses, both of which the new building should ameliorate.[9]

Graduate student programs in the college take place both in Ithaca and at the Cornell Tech campus in New York City.[17]

Rankings

Cornell has long had one of the top-ranked computer science programs in the nation.[18] It placed in a tie for sixth overall in the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings for 2022, with specialty rankings of third in theory, third in programming languages, tied for fifth in artificial intelligence, and twelfth in computer systems.[19]

Cornell ranked in a tie for thirteenth in statistics in the same 2022 rankings.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b "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 "Undergraduate Opportunities". 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 c d Steele, Bill (June 11, 2008). "Robert Constable, founding dean of computing and information science, will step down in 2009". Cornell Chronicle. Cornell University.
  7. ^ a b "Cornell to build info campus with Gates gift". Star-Gazette. Elmira, New York. Associated Press. January 26, 2006. p. 4A – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b c d e Lefkowitz, Melanie (December 17, 2020). "Gift from Ann S. Bowers '59 Creates New College of Computing and Information Science". Cornell Chronicle. Cornell University.
  9. ^ a b c d Nagel, Julia (August 3, 2022). "Move Over Baseball, The Future of Cornell is CIS". Ithaca Times.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ "Kavita Bala Named New Dean of Computing and Information Science". Cornell University. June 5, 2020.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ "Cofounders of Wayfair Donate $10 Million to Cornell". The Boston Globe. September 21, 2021. p. B6 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Basu, Surita (October 18, 2022). "President Martha Pollack Highlights 'To Do The Greatest Good' Campaign at State of the University Address, Students Demonstrate Outside". The Cornell Daily Sun.
  16. ^ a b Fertig, Ally (October 15, 2021). "$10 Million Alumni Donation Funds New Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science Building". The Cornell Daily Sun.
  17. ^ "Graduate Opportunities". Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 12, 2022.
  18. ^ Palazzo, Michael (November 15, 1978). "Computer Dept. Wins Prominence Throughout U.S." The Cornell Daily Sun. pp. 1, 10, 11.
  19. ^ "Best Computer Science Schools". U.S. News & World Report. 2022. Retrieved October 29, 2022. See "More Rankings" button for specialty rankings.
  20. ^ "Best Statistics Programs". U.S. News & World Report. 2022. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
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