Welcome to the Computer Science Department – birthplace of the Internet.   The department was formally established during UCLA’s 1968-69 academic year. UCLA is one of the nation's largest and most prestigious graduate education centers in computer and information technology. The dedicated efforts of our prominent faculty and exceptional students have coalesced to rank us among the top computer science departments in the world. The UCLA Computer Science Department is well known for its research in the design and analysis of complex computer systems and networks, and for its key role in the creation of the ARPANET—the precursor to today’s Internet. Internationally recognized research has been carried out in such diverse computer science areas as embedded systems, artificial intelligence, mobile computing, architecture, simulation, graphics, vision, data mining, CAD and reconfigurable systems, biomedical systems, programming languages and compilers.

The department strives to excel in both research and education. Over the past several years we made significant progress in many areas—including faculty recruiting, expansion of research programs, production of high-quality and exciting results in both basic and applied research, success in securing significant funding opportunities, further refinement of undergraduate and graduate programs, placement of graduates, and faculty and student awards and recognitions.  

At this point in time, the department has thirty-six ladder faculty and six adjunct faculty, including two new faculty members who were added within the past two years: Amit Sahai (theory of computation, security and cryptography) and Demetri Terzopoulos (computer graphics and computer vision).  Both are highly sought-after leaders in their fields, and both bring a great amount of visibility and energy to the department.

The department now has more than thirty labs and research groups, and three major research centers, including CENS (Center for Embedded Networked Systems), CAINS (Center for Autonomous Intelligent Networks and Systems), and CICS (Center for Information and Computation Security). These centers involve faculty from other departments, universities, and industrial and community partners. Also, given the rapid expansion of computer science and information technology and the tight interaction of various disciplines within computer science and engineering, we have organized the department’s research activities into four interdisciplinary research clusters: Internet Technologies, Embedded Systems, Intelligent Systems and Interfaces, and Software Systems. These clusters cut across the boundaries of traditional computer science core areas and promote wider collaboration among faculty and students. The clusters will be adaptive, evolving over time to reflect leading research trends in computer science, engineering and related disciplines—as well as to reflect the strengths of our faculty and research programs.

The quality and significance of our programs are also reflected in new research funding and faculty recognition.  For example, during 2003 to 2005, the department received 26 new research contracts and grants, for a total of approximately $19 million.  Our faculty received over 30 diverse prizes, honors and recognitions, best paper awards, and patent awards.  In particular, our adjunct faculty member, Dr. Alan Kay, received both the 2003 Turing Award and the 2004 Kyoto Prize. 

We continue to excel in both undergraduate and graduate education. Our two undergraduate majors—computer science and computer science and engineering—are among the most popular in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, with approximately 635 enrolled students.  In the 2004 to 2005 timeframe, 164 B.S. degrees were awarded. Our graduate program has 329 students, most of them in the Ph.D. program. In the 2004 to 2005 timeframe, 99 M.S. and 28 Ph.D. degrees were awarded. Our graduate program is especially dynamic, with areas of specialization ranging from Internet computing, Web technologies, data mining, and sensor networks to VLSI CAD, embedded/reconfigurable systems, computer vision, and computer graphics.  Over the past few years, many of our Ph.D. graduates have embarked on new careers at major research universities such as Northwestern, UC Davis, UCI, UC Merced, and UIUC; or at leading research laboratories or centers such as AT&T Research, GE Research, HP Laboratories, IBM Research, and JPL; and also at many leading corporations such as Google, Intel, Microsoft, Rockwell, and Electronic Arts.   Additionally, many of our graduates have received numerous honors and earned international recognition.  For example our renowned alumnus, Dr. Vinton Cerf (Ph.D. 1972), has received the 2005 Turing Award, an award that is often recognized as the “Nobel Prize of computing.”

As the current Computer Science Department chair, I want to thank the department’s former chair, Professor Milos Ercegovac, for his leadership over the past five years. The department grew significantly under his direction—bringing a much-needed new level of energy and excitement.   During my tenure as chair, I will capitalize on this energy and excitement, working closely with the faculty to greatly extend our current strength, to build new centers of excellence, to reach out to other areas of the campus to explore emerging multidisciplinary areas, and by doing this, to bring the department to a new level of success.

Jingsheng Jason Cong
Chair, Computer Science Department
December 2005