From the Chairman
Dr. Tomasz Imielinski
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From the ChairmanDr. Tomasz Imielinski |
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The year is almost over and I am quite happy with what was
accomplished so far. Our first Rutgers Computer Science Open house has
been very succesful with nearly 200 people in attendance; broad
faculty participation (great talks, posters and demos!), distinguished
invited speakers and panelists. University administration was strongly
represented with President Lawrence giving opening remarks and in
attendance Vice Presidents Haska and Flannagan and the Dean of FAS,
Dick Foley. On the educational front, we have approved a comprehensive new educational program as a certificate in "Internet Technology" as a result of intense three month curriculum preparations. One of the first programs of this kind, it will offer a certificate in Internet Technology to all computer science majors who, in addition to fulfilling the requirements of the major, take five courses: distributed systems (a new course), advanced web applications (a new course), networking protocols, databases and software engineering or compilers. In the near future we are planning to add student internships (in collaboration with industry) as well as an Internet incubator - a facilty to help students in technology transfer. There is tremendous interest in the program among students as well as industry. The expected launching of the program - Fall 1997. SUN Microsystems has given us a major equipment gift for the Internet Technology Program. The gift is 21 top-of-the-line workstations and one server machine (a total value of $381,000.) The Infrastructure Committee (Apostolos Gerasoulis and Donald Smith) approached SUN with this exciting proposal. SUN will be a member of our Advisory Board and will actively participate in the activities. In addition, three Computer Science proposals were funded by the University's Strategic Plan: the Internet program, BioInformatics, and Computational Design. The University Strategic Plan is providing annual funding to various initiatives throughout the University to assist with launching new programs. The combined funding for all these three important initiatives nears $600,000 and reflects the high priority which the University gives to Computer Science. Other new initiatives started this year include monthly faculty lunches with invited speakers (the first with Jim Flannagan - University Vice president for Research and Director of CAIP and then with Fred Roberts - Director of DIMACS). This series is being organized by Haym Hirsh. In an attempt to have our undergraduates better informed about research projects and opportunities at our department, I have prepared a presentation of the departmental research and presented this in several undegraduate classes. Much interest was generated from the students and I hope that this presentation can be given more often (by all Computer Science faculty) in the future.
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From the Chairman
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