Cornell Computing and Information Science: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|SchoolInformation withinscience program at Cornell University}}

{{Third-party|date=November 2022}}{{Primary sources|date=November 2022}}

{{Short description|School within Cornell University}}

{{Infobox university

| name = Cornell BowersComputing CISand Information Science

| image = Bill & Melinda Gates Hall at Cornell University.jpg

| image_size =

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| affiliations = [[Cornell University]]

| logo = File:Cornell Bowers CIS logo.png

| website = {{url|www.https://cis.cornell.edu}}

}}

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.<ref name="cis-departments">{{cite web | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/about/departments | title=Departments | publisher=Cornell Bowers CIS | access-date=November 12, 2022 }}</ref> However, as Cornell computer science professor [[David Gries]] has explained, "essentially it's a college without students,"<ref name="OHCS-Constable"/> with students instead being admitted to, and coming from, three of Cornell's regular undergraduate schools: the [[Cornell University College of Engineering|College of Engineering]], the [[Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences|College of Arts and Sciences]], and the [[New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University|College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]].<ref name="cis-undergrad">{{cite web | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/students/undergraduate-opportunities | title=Undergraduate Opportunities | publisher=Cornell Bowers CIS | access-date=November 12, 2022 }}</ref> 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]].<ref name="cis-departments"/> In addition, students from any of Cornell's seven different undergraduate schools can [[Academic minor|minor]] in computer science or information science.<ref name="cis-undergrad"/>

'''Cornell Computing and Information Science''' (officially the '''Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science'''; also as '''Cornell Bowers CIS''') is the umbrella name for the the information science program at [[Cornell University]], a private university based in [[Ithaca, New York|Ithaca]], [[New York (state)|New York]], United States.

By 2022, there were 2,000&nbsp;students taking majors in the college,<ref name="tompkweek-2022"/> and 76&nbsp;percent of all undergraduate students were taking at least one course in CIS.<ref name="ithtimes-2022"/> The college is located in Bill & Melinda Gates Hall near the Engineering Quadrangle on the [[Cornell Central Campus]] in [[Ithaca, New York]].<ref name="cis-rfs">{{cite web | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/faculty-staff/resources-faculty-staff | title=Leadership | publisher=Cornell Bowers CIS | access-date=November 12, 2022 }}</ref> A new building is planned to help accommodate the rapidly increasing enrollments in CIS subjects.<ref name="ithvoice-2022"/> The inaugural dean of the college is [[Kavita Bala]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/about-college/dean-kavita-bala

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.<ref name="cis-departments">{{cite web | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/about/departments | title=Departments | publisher=Cornell Bowers CIS | access-date=November 12, 2022 }}</ref> However, as Cornell computer science professor [[David Gries]] has explained, "essentially it's a college without students,"<ref name="OHCS-Constable" /> with students instead being admitted to, and coming from, three of Cornell's regular undergraduate schools: the [[Cornell University College of Engineering|College of Engineering]], the [[Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences|College of Arts and Sciences]], and the [[New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University|College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]].<ref name="cis-undergrad">{{cite web | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/students/undergraduate-opportunities | title=Undergraduate Opportunities | publisher=Cornell Bowers CIS | access-date=November 12, 2022 }}</ref> 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 [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]].<ref name="cis-departments" /> In addition, students from any of Cornell's seven different undergraduate schools can [[Academic minor|minor]] in computer science or information science.<ref name="cis-undergrad" />

By 2022, there were 2,000&nbsp;students taking majors in the college,<ref name="tompkweek-2022" /> and 76&nbsp;percent of all undergraduate students were taking at least one course in CIS.<ref name="ithtimes-2022" /> The college is located in Bill & Melinda Gates Hall near the Engineering Quadrangle on the [[Cornell Central Campus]] in [[Ithaca, New York]].<ref name="cis-rfs">{{cite web | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/faculty-staff/resources-faculty-staff | title=Leadership | publisher=Cornell Bowers CIS | access-date=November 12, 2022 }}</ref> A new building is planned to help accommodate the rapidly increasing enrollments in CIS subjects.<ref name="ithvoice-2022" /> The inaugural dean of the college is [[Kavita Bala]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/about-college/dean-kavita-bala

| title=Dean Kavita Bala | publisher=Cornell Bowers CIS | access-date=November 11, 2022 }}</ref>

== Faculty of Computing and Information Science ==

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.<ref name="chron-constable"/> The initiative, done under the university presidency of [[Hunter R. Rawlings III]], overcame early opposition from many professors in both the Engineering and Arts schools.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/great-panel-cis-20th-anniversary-event-recalls-ciss-controversial-creation | title=Great Panel at CIS 20th Anniversary Event Recalls CIS's Controversial Creation | publisher=Cornell Bowers CIS | date=October 2019 | access-date=November 23, 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref name="chron-constable"/> 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;<ref name="OHCS-Constable">{{cite interview |last=Constable |first=Robert L. |subject-link= |interviewer=David Gries |title=A Conversation with Robert L. Constable |work=An Oral History of Computer Science |date=July 21, 2015 |publisher= Cornell University Library |___location= |url=https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/40560 }} See segments at 2:05 and 31:25.</ref> this was seen as critical given the field's increasingly widespread importance to nearly every area of study at the university.<ref name="ap-fcis-gates"/> Furthermore, the [[information science]] side of the faculty would focus on how computer-related technology was affecting society and the world.<ref name="chron-bowers"/>

In 2005, the Department of Statistical Science was incorporated into the faculty.<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPGJUiUCJZkC&pg=PA49 | chapter=Biometrics and Statistical Science at Cornell | author-first=James G. | author-last=Booth | author2-first=Martin T. | author2-last=Wells | title=Strength in Numbers: The Rising of Academic Statistics Departments in the U. S. | editor-first=Alan | editor-last=Agresti | editor2-first=Xiao-Li | editor2-last=Meng | publisher=Springer | ___location=New York | year= 2013 | pages=39&nbsp;50 | isbn=978-1-4614-3649-2 }} At p. 49.</ref> A $25&nbsp;million donation from the [[Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation]] in 2006 led to the construction of the building named after couple,<ref name="ap-fcis-gates">{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112997205/ | title=Cornell to build info campus with Gates gift | agency=Associated Press | newspaper= Star-Gazette | ___location=Elmira, New York | date=January 26, 2006 | page=4A | via=Newspapers.com }}</ref> which opened in 2014.<ref name="ithvoice-2022"/> Other CIS facilities include [[Cornell University Center for Advanced Computing|Rhodes Hall]],<ref name="ithvoice-2022"/> as well as Malott Hall.<ref name="cis-departments"/>

Constable would remain as the faculty's dean for ten years.<ref name="chron-constable">{{cite news |url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2008/06/robert-constable-step-down-cis-dean |title=Robert Constable, founding dean of computing and information science, will step down in 2009 |first=Bill |last=Steele |date=June 11, 2008 |work=Cornell Chronicle | publisher=Cornell University }}</ref> When he stepped down from the post, Provost [[Biddy Martin]] said that Constable had succeeded in giving computing reach into areas as different as architecture, history, plant science, and psychology.<ref name="chron-constable"/> He was succeeded as dean by [[Daniel P. Huttenlocher]].<ref name="chron-legs">{{cite news | url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2010/02/new-dean-says-cis-has-more-legs-stand | title=From the new dean: CIS has more legs to stand on | author-first=Bill | author-last=Steele | work=Cornell Chronicle | date=February 17, 2010 }}</ref>

According to Cornell professors and administrators, the Faculty of Computing and Information Science was a "pioneer" in devising this structure, and other universities have since emulated aspects of it.<ref name="ithtimes-2022"/><ref name=":0"/> In particular, other institutions began tying computer science and information science more closely together.<ref name="chron-legs"/> Huttenlocher took the interdisciplinary approach of the Faculty of Computing and Information Science to his next position, at [[Cornell Tech]], and then in the late 2010s he became the first dean of the [[MIT Schwarzman College of Computing]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], which also emphasized an interdisciplinary perspective that emphasized the impacts of computing technology on society.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.mit.edu/2019/dan-huttenlocher-named-inaugural-mit-schwarzman-college-of-computing-dean-0221 | title=Dan Huttenlocher named inaugural dean of MIT Schwarzman College of Computing | author-first=Rob | author-last=Matheson | publisher=MIT News Office | date=February 21, 2019 }}</ref>

As an example of how the Faculty of Computing and Information Science emphasized the value of multidisciplinary studies,<ref name="OHCS-Constable"/> one initiative of the faculty was to support [[Double majors in the United States|double major]]s between computer science and a variety of other subjects in any of the Arts, Engineering, or Agriculture schools.<ref name="cacm-wic"/> This proved successful in increasing the number of women who were computer science majors.<ref name="cacm-wic">{{cite journal | author-first=Maria | author-last=Klawe | author2-first=Telle | author2-last=Whitney | author3-first= Caroline | author3-last=Simard | title= Women in Computing&mdash;Take 2| journal= Communications of the ACM | volume=52 | number= 2 | date=February 2009 | pages= 68&ndash;76 | doi=10.1145/1461928.1461947 | s2cid=1161329 }} At p. 71.</ref> Indeed, by 2020 some 43&nbsp;percent of students majoring in CIS were female, a figure well above typical for the United States.<ref name="chron-bowers"/>

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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|title=Kavita Bala Named New Dean of Computing and Information Science |url=https://www.cs.cornell.edu/information/news/newsitem11212/kavita-bala-named-new-dean-computing-and-information-science|date=June 5, 2020|publisher=Cornell University}}</ref> Then when the college was created later that year, she became the first dean of it.<ref name="chron-bowers"/>

== Formation of the college ==

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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.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley | author-last=Berlin | author-first=Leslie | year= 2005 | publisher =Oxford University Press | ___location=New York | pages=230, 231, 253, 306 }}</ref> She had frequently donated to Cornell in the past.<ref name="chron-bowers"/>

An additional new building is planned, helped by a $10&nbsp;million donation from the two founders of [[Wayfair]], both Cornell alumni,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112987588/the-boston-globe/ | title=Cofounders of Wayfair Donate $10 Million to Cornell | newspaper=The Boston Globe | date=September 21, 2021 | page=B6 | via=Newspapers.com }}</ref> as well as from Bowers.<ref name="ithvoice-2022"/> By late 2022, plans were underway to break ground on the new building,<ref name="cdsun-101822">{{cite news | url=https://cornellsun.com/2022/10/18/president-martha-pollack-highlights-to-do-the-greatest-good-campaign-at-state-of-the-university-address-students-demonstrate-outside/ | title=President Martha Pollack Highlights 'To Do The Greatest Good' Campaign at State of the University Address, Students Demonstrate Outside | author-first=Surita | author-last=Basu | newspaper=The Cornell Daily Sun | date=October 18, 2022 }}</ref> with construction scheduled to begin in 2023 and conclude in 2025.<ref name="tompkweek-2022">{{cite news | url=https://www.tompkinsweekly.com/articles/cornell-announces-new-planned-science-building/ | title=Cornell announces new planned science building | author-first=Jessica | author-last=Wickham | newspaper=Tompkins Weekly | date=May 25, 2022}}</ref> The new structure is designed by [[Leers Weinzapfel Associates]] and would be built adjacent to Gates Hall, with green space located in between to form a [[Quadrangle (architecture)|mini-quad]].<ref name="ithvoice-2022">{{cite news | url=https://ithacavoice.com/2022/05/cornell-plans-new-computer-science-building-on-hoy-field/ | title=Cornell plans new $100M computer science building on Hoy Field | author-first=Brian | author-last=Crandall | work=The Ithaca Voice | date=May 4, 2022 }}</ref> Construction would be on the site of [[Hoy Field (Cornell)|Hoy Field]], the longtime [[Cornell Big Red baseball|varsity baseball team]] diamond (which will be relocated further out from the central campus, at some loss of convenience and tradition).<ref name="ithtimes-2022">{{cite news | url=https://www.ithaca.com/news/ithaca/move-over-baseball-the-future-of-cornell-is-cis/article_c422aeea-1341-11ed-b99e-4fcd6b6ae0b9.html | title=Move Over Baseball, The Future of Cornell is CIS | author-first=Julia | author-last=Nagel | newspaper=Ithaca Times | date=August 3, 2022 }}</ref> The new building is intended to help handle a factor-of-six increase in computer and information science enrollments during the previous decade.<ref name="cdsun-101521">{{cite news | url=https://cornellsun.com/2021/10/15/10-million-alumni-donation-funds-new-ann-s-bowers-college-of-computing-and-information-science-building/ | title=$10 Million Alumni Donation Funds New Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science Building | author-first=Ally | author-last=Fertig | newspaper=The Cornell Daily Sun | date=October 15, 2021 }}</ref> 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 could ameliorate.<ref name="ithtimes-2022"/>

Graduate student programs in the college take place both in Ithaca and at the [[Cornell Tech]] campus in New York City.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://cis.cornell.edu/future-students/graduate-opportunities | title=Graduate Opportunities | publisher=Cornell Bowers CIS | access-date=November 12, 2022 }}</ref>

By 2022 there were 62 full-time faculty members in the Department of Computer Science, with 49 in Ithaca and 13 in New York City.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cs.cornell.edu/information/about | title=Welcome to Computer Science at Cornell University | author-first=Éva | author-last=Tardos | publisher=Department of Computer Science, Cornell University | access-date=January 28, 2023}}</ref> There were 42 full-time faculty in the Department of Information Science,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://infosci.cornell.edu/about | title=About | date=8 January 2018 | publisher=Department of Information Science, Cornell University | access-date=January 28, 2023}}</ref> and 18 tenure or tenure-track positions in the Department of Statistics and Data Science.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://apps.hr.cornell.edu/recruiting/facultyview.cfm?posting_id=_JOB_POSTING-3-46696 | title=Associate or Full Professor of the Department of Statistics and Data Science; Ithaca, New York | publisher=Human Resources, Cornell University | access-date=January 28, 2023}}</ref>

== Rankings ==

Cornell has long had one of the top-ranked computer science programs in the nation.<ref name="cdsun-111578">{{cite news | url=https://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/imageserver.pl?oid=CDS19781115&getpdf=true | title=Computer Dept. Wins Prominence Throughout U.S. | author-first=Michael | author-last=Palazzo | newspaper=The Cornell Daily Sun | date=November 15, 1978 | pages=1, 10, 11 }}</ref> It placed in a tie for sixth overall in the [[U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Ranking]]s for 2022, with specialty rankings of third in [[Theoretical computer science|theory]], third in [[Programming language theory|programming languages]], tied for fifth in [[artificial intelligence]], and twelfth in [[computer systems]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings?_sort=rank-asc | title=Best Computer Science Schools | work=U.S. News & World Report | date=2022 | access-date=October 29, 2022}} See "More Rankings" button for specialty rankings.</ref>

Cornell ranked in a tie for thirteenth in statistics in the same 2022 rankings.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/statistics-rankings?_sort=rank-asc | title=Best Statistics Programs | work=U.S. News & World Report | date=2022 | access-date=November 16, 2022}}</ref>