The CS Department
Since our inception in 1979, the Computer Science Department at Brown
has forged a path of innovative information technology research and
teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. From our modest
beginnings as an interest group within the Divisions of Applied
Mathematics and Engineering in the 1960s to its current stature as one
of the nation's leading computer science programs - as ranked by the
National Research Council - the Computer Science Department has
continuously produced the most prominent contributors in the field, at
both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Multidisciplinary
We are a diverse community of scholars engaged in all aspects of
research, teaching and mentoring in computer science and its related
interdisciplinary disciplines. Realizing the importance of computing
and algorithmic thinking in so many scientific, social and
technological endeavors, we collaborate extensively with colleagues in
archaeology, applied mathematics, biology, cognitive and linguistic
sciences, economics, engineering, mathematics, medicine, physics and
neuroscience.
Our undergraduate offerings reflect the department's
multidisciplinary orientations, with joint concentrations in
mathematics, applied mathematics, computational biology and economics.
We have strong undergraduate research groups in graphics, neuroscience
and robotics as well as a long history of involving undergraduates in
projects that span disciplinary boundaries. Graduate students find it
easy to tailor their education to meet the challenges of
multidisciplinary research and commonly have advisors in two or more
departments.
Faculty
Excellence in teaching and mentoring is highly prized in our
department. Our faculty is encouraged to develop new, more effective
ways of teaching computer science and to lead in the development of new
curricula and materials for teaching. For example, our introductory
courses are subject to constant revision to keep the content fresh and
exciting. Junior and senior faculty alike teach undergraduate courses;
the teaching load distributed so that junior faculty can spend more
time getting their research on track.
Graduate Program
Graduate students work closely with faculty and with one another and
are supported through a variety of university, government and corporate
grants and fellowships. The research facilities available to graduate
students are state of the art, and their offices, intermingled with the
faculty offices, are comfortable and spacious. Open areas for
socializing and working are also intermingled, and well-equipped
kitchens and common areas provide an inviting environment for impromptu
brainstorming and collaborative research.
Undergraduate Program
We have a long history of involving undergraduates in research and
education. Encouraging undergraduates to do research was novel when we
began, more than 25 years ago, and we remain unique in the extent to
which undergraduates create and take part in research programs and
coauthor research papers. We expect that most of our undergraduate
concentrators will participate in research during their time at Brown,
and we make sure that they have ample opportunity to exercise their
interests.
In our extensive undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA) program,
qualified undergraduates participate in all aspects of course
development and instruction and play an important peer-teaching and
mentoring role in all our undergraduate courses. Having UTAs run study
sections and explain computing concepts to their peers appropriately
blurs the line between teaching and learning and encourages all
students to take an active part in their education. This early teaching
experience positions students to become leaders and prepares them for
the many computing careers in which team-based, collaborative problem
solving is the norm. Our UTA program is frequently cited by our
graduates, their employers and their graduate advisors as an important
contributing factor to the high quality of our graduates and goes far
to account for the large number of our graduates who become leaders in
academia and industry.
Industrial Partners Program
Our Industrial Partners Program (IPP) exists to provide interaction
between the academic and corporate information technology communities
and allows us to offer corporations exceptional opportunities for
productive collaboration with a leading academic research institution.
We are committed to progress in research and the transfer of
state-of-the-art technologies beyond the campus. We are also committed
to informing our students and faculty about the career opportunities in
industry and keeping them current on the technical problems that drive
industrial research and development. Strong, mutually beneficial links
with leaders in computer-related industries will advance these goals.
Facilities
Located on the top three floors of Brown's Center for Information
Technology, members of the computer science community enjoy large
open-plan spaces designed to support collaborative research and
facilitate social and intellectual interaction. The department's
computing infrastructure is separate from the rest of the university
and supports all our administrative, research and educational needs. In
particular, we maintain several state-of-the-art classrooms and
computing labs with high-performance computing clusters and graphics
workstations. The Center for Computation and Visualization hosts
multiple parallel high-performance computer clusters and an Immersive
Virtual Reality Cave which are used for both research and teaching.
More Information
Each year we publish a
brochure (a pdf document), which contains a more complete description of our faculty and programs.
