Activities and Facilities

 Laboratory for Computer Science Research (LCSR)

The Laboratory for Computer Science Research (LCSR) was established as a separate unit of the Center for Mathematical Sciences Research in June, 1977. The main objective of the LCSR is to provide a focus for computer science research in the University, and a base for the support functions that are needed for this research: administrative, technical and clerical support and appropriate computer and communication/networking facilities.

The Laboratory provides the environment for scientific interactions and collaborations between computer scientists and members of other disciplines at Rutgers as well as collaborations with scientists in other institutions in the country. In addition it provides the administrative basis for all computer science grant-supported projects in New Brunswick. Also, the Laboratory's function is to support all efforts to obtain new outside grants for research in computer science. See the Research & Training menu item for current grant-supported research projects.

The LCSR has established several links with industry so that researchers in the department can know more about significant current problems of interest to industry, and so that the department and industry can pursue joint research projects. Current projects of particular interest to industry include research in the areas of computer aided design, architectures and systems, large, distributed software systems, and biomedical imaging. Additional support for these and other research topics in computer science is derived from federal government agencies.

 Computing Environment

The Laboratory for Computer Science provides and supports all the computing within the department for instruction and research. In particular, they provide three multiprocessor cycle/file servers (for undergraduate, graduate and faculty use respectively). All faculty and graduate offices student have access to the servers from workstations located throughout the department using over 100 megabits per second Ethernet connections through a pair of Cisco 500 switches.

In addition, LCSR supports several dedicated research and instructional laboratories: a parallel laboratory of 16 Sun processors connected over a 1-gigabyte Myrinet network; and an instructional laboratory of 20 Ultra donated by Sub Microsystems; an instructional laboratory of 20 PCs donated by Hewlett Packard; and a graphics laboratory consisting of 20 high-end graphics terminals.

LCSR and the Center for Computer Aids for Industrial Productivity (CAIP) jointly operate a pair of identical Enterprise 10,000 shared-memory processors donated by Sun Microsystems. Each machine has 64 processors, 32 gigabytes of memory, and almost 1 terabyte of disk. Together these resources, ranked among the world's top 100 computing resources, support both instruction, and research are are available to all faculty and graduate students.

 Libraries

The Rutgers University Library contains over 2,000,000 bound volumes and over 1,000,000 government documents, pamphlets, maps, and other materials. The two largest divisions are the Alexander Library on the College Avenue campus, which contains the main collections of material in the social sciences and humanities, and the Library of Science and Medicine on the Busch campus, which concentrates on science, technology, medicine and psychology. The books and journals of interest to the Engineering School that are contained there may be of interest to computer scientists. The Mathematical Sciences Library is a branch of the Library of Science and Medicine, and is located on the first floor of the Hill Center. It contains 33,000 volumes and subscribes to approximately 400 journals, all in the area of mathematics, statistics, computer science and operations research. Also there is a large collection of approximately 3000 recent proceedings and computer science technical reports from various universities. It has all the main books and journals of particular interest to computer scientists. In general, the Mathematical Sciences Library will try to obtain whatever books, journals and reports that the faculty requests.

 Computer Science Graduate Student Society (CSGSS)

  The purpose of the CSGSS is to encourage communications among its members, and between its members and the faculty and staff of the division, and to improve the academic and social environment of the division. In effect, the CSGSS is the official voice of the graduate students. (All registered graduate students in the division are members of CSGSS).

Recent projects/events include:

1. Survival Guide: The survival guide provides information for new graduate students, including: How to survive the first few weeks; a description of the division; a description of Rutgers University; what it's like to live around New Brunswick; advice on graduate study and getting your degree.
2. Student Hosts: Each new student is assigned a veteran graduate student to ease the adjustment to the division and the New Brunswick area.
3. Orientation/Party: Early in the academic year, an orientation session and party welcomes the new students into the division.
4. Representation on the Division's Committees: Students are elected to serve as representatives to various faculty committees such as admissions, curriculum, computer resources, etc.
5. Teaching Award: Designed to encourage and show our appreciation for excellent teaching. Voted on by the graduate students, the award is presented during Spring Convocation.
6. Student Seminars: Informal seminars, consisting of a presentation of ongoing research and rehearsals for conference talks.
7. Faculty Research Colloquim: Throughout the year, members of the faculty present their research to students and other faculty in seminars sponsored by CSGSS. This allows students to feel out possible research areas, and allows faculty members to keep abreast of their colleagues' work.
8. Newsgroup and Web page: The CSGSS electronic bulletin board/newsgroup is maintained for the private use of the graduate students (there is also a public board for division-wide discussions). Topics include general announcements, complaints and criticism, stupid jokes, etc. The CSGSS Web page ishttp://paul.rutgers.edu/~ csgss/; it contains information for applicants and news on CSGSS activities.
9. Social Activities: Among others, a Halloween Party, picnics, a St. Patrick's Day party.

The division has provided financial and moral support for our many activities. CSGSS is always looking for new ideas and new volunteers.

 Computer Science Colloquia and Seminars

Speakers present recent research results or surveys in colloquia or seminars sponsored by the division. The colloquia are intended for a general computer science audience, while seminars may present more specialized technical results. In either case, graduate students are strongly encouraged to attend these presentations, as they form an integral part of a well-rounded education and provide opportunities for exposure to novel ideas.

In addition, there are research seminars provided by other departments that may be of interest. Particularly notable are the many seminars and workshops sponsored by DIMACS (the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science).