A computer science student town hall meeting was held on Friday to formally introduce and update students about the department’s proposal to transform itself into a distinct school of computing and data science. While it will stay in the Grainger College of Engineering, the plan has been in the works for years and is anticipated to launch by Fall of 2024.
“This proposal is to transform the department into a school of computing and data science, but we would stay in the (Grainger) College of Engineering,” said Nancy Amato, head of the Department of Computer Science. “Many computer science departments over the past 10 years have transformed themselves into schools or colleges — every campus does it some different way and they have to think of the right way to do it.”
Amato wanted to clarify the reasoning for the department’s transition into a school, citing growing trends related to computing and data science and implementing such trends in one of the University’s most distinguished departments.
“One of the reasons why the college is supportive of this is that they feel that computing and data science are becoming another crucial pillar of engineering,” Amato said. “Becoming a school would let us have a special kind of partnership between us and the college that will be distinguished from other departments in the college.”
The town hall had many students in attendance with questions about the proposal. Amato clarified to them that although the computer science department is going through a name change, the usual operations of the department will remain even after it becomes a school.
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“Everything that the department currently has will be automatically transferred into the school,” Amato said. “All of our faculty, staff, and all of our operations will just be transferred. In the school, you should not see any changes in anything that you are dealing with.”
Additionally, administrators are working to design and build a new building in Urbana. The building, called Building X, will primarily accommodate computer science with classrooms and offices that will give the department more room to expand as a school and foster innovation. It will be fully constructed by 2027 and will be located next to the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science.
“The new building will have space for faculty, graduate students and seminar rooms,” Amato said. “We will have space on the ground floor so that we can have more events and workshops because that is one of the things we don’t have on this part of campus, and we want to have more workshops where we bring people from all over.”
The decision defines a unique partnership between computer and data science and other departments within the college, ultimately elevating computer science and computing across the nation.
There will be another computer science town hall meeting for those who could not attend Friday’s gathering on Wednesday at 1 p.m. in Room 1404 at the Siebel Center for Computer Science.
