Enhancing the Computer Science Infrastructure

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The first and primary goal of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Spelman College is the production of quality female scientists and engineers. Hence, all of their efforts must advance this goal. In order to accomplish this goal they must build a strong research component for their academic programs in computer science and applied mathematics. Although Spelman is primarily a teaching institution, they recognize the close tie between teaching and research, and the benefits of research at undergraduate institutions for faculty and for students. They propose to increase the percentage of their student involved in research or realistic practical experiences to at least seventy percent of the upper division students (i.e., juniors and seniors) over the next five years. This requires that they develop a faculty of adequate size for the student population with strong research and teaching capabilities. They propose to improve faculty teaching and research capability by providing assistance to faculty in completing the doctorate degree in Computer Science. Two faculty members are in process toward the Ph.D degree and will be given released time and/or financial assistance for full-time study. An additional faculty member will be recruited. Cooperative arrangements will be made with other institutions who are engaged in related research in order to increase the collaboration of faculty in research. Second, they will develop a computer science program which meets the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) guidelines for accreditation. The target date for accreditation is the academic year 1994-95. Third, they will increase the percentage of students in computer science with an interest in scientific applications through systematic exposure of these students to scientific careers and involvement in appropriate science related activities. The new electives will provide exposure to some of the more "glamourous" and exciting aspects of computer science, e.g., robotics, computer vision, and computer graphics. Cooperative arrangements with graduate institutions will be established which will involve students in research and dual degree programs and will include B.S/M.S programs in computer science. Cooperative arrangements with industry and government laboratories will provide on-the job exposure to scientific careers through co-op and summer internship programs. Fourth, they intend to separate the mathematics and computer science programs by creating a new Department of Computer Science to house the newly accredited program. This transition will occur when the number of full-time computer science faculty holding the doctorate degree has reached a minimum of three. This separation will produce a faculty whose sole or primary interest is the improvement of research and instruction in computer science.