Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies: Dr. Adam Cannon, 459 Computer Science Building; 939-7016; cannon@cs.columbia.edu

Departmental Office: 450 Computer Science Building; 939-7000

Departmental Advisers:

First-Years and Sophomores: Prof. Alfred Aho, 513 Computer Science; 939-7067; aho@cs.columbia.edu
Juniors: Prof. Kathleen McKeown, 722 CEPSR; 939-7118; kathy@cs.columbia.edu
Seniors: Prof. Jonathan Gross, 458 Computer Science; 939-7015; gross@cs.columbia.edu

(A-L) Prof. Luis Gravano, 706 CEPSR; 939-7064; gravano@cs.columbia.edu

(M-Z) Prof. Mihalis Yannakakis; 455 Computer Science Bldg; 939-7145; mihalis@cs.columbia.edu

• http://www.cs.columbia.edu/

The majors in computer science provides students with the appropriate computer science background necessary for graduate study or a professional career. Computers have an impact on nearly all areas of human endeavor. Therefore, the department also offers several courses intended for students who do not plan a computer science major or concentration. The computer science majors offers maximum flexibility by providing students with a range of options for the specialization of their program. The department offers two majors: a major in computer science and a major in information science.

Computer Science Major

Students study a common core of fundamental topics, supplemented by a track that identifies specific areas for deeper study.The foundations track prepares students for advanced work in fundamental theoretical and mathematical aspects of computing, including analysis of algorithms, scientific computing, and security. The systems track prepares students for immediate employment in the computer industry as well as advanced study in such areas as software engineering, operating systems, computer-aided digital design, computer architecture, programming languages, and user interfaces. The artificial intelligence track provides specialization for the student interested in natural language processing and systems capable of exhibiting “human-like” intelligence. The applications track is for students interested in the implementation of interactive multimedia content for the Internet and wireless applications. The vision and graphics track exposes students to computer vision, graphics, human-computer interaction and robotics. A combination track is available to students who wish to pursue an interdisciplinary course of study combining computer science and another field in the arts, humanities, mathematics, natural sciences, or social sciences. A student planning a combination track should be aware that one additional course is required to complete this option.

Information Science Major

Information science is an interdisciplinary major designed to provide a student with an understanding of how information is organized, accessed, stored, distributed, and processed in strategic segments of today’s society. Recent years have seen an explosive growth of on-line information, with people of all ages and all walks of life making use of the World Wide Web and other information in digital form. This major puts students at the forefront of the information revolution, studying how online access touches on all disciplines, changing the very way people communicate. Organizations have large stores of in-house information that are crucial to their daily operation. Today’s systems must enable quick access to relevant information, must ensure that confidential information is secure, and must enable new forms of communication among people and their access to information. The information sciences major can choose a scientific focus on algorithms and systems for organizing, accessing, and processing information or an interdisciplinary focus in order to develop an understanding of, and tools for, information modeling and use within an important sector of modern society such as economics or health.

Advanced Placement

The department grants 3 points for a score of 4 or 5 on the AP Computer Science A exam along with exemption from COMS W1004. Students can receive credit for only one introductory computer science sequence.

Laboratory Facilities

The Department has well-equipped lab areas for research in computer graphics, computer-aided digital design, computer vision, databases and digital libraries, data mining and knowledge discovery, distributed systems, mobile and wearable computing, natural-language processing, networking, operating systems, programming systems, robotics, user interfaces, and real-time multimedia.

The computer facilities include a shared infrastructure of Sun and Linux multiprocessor file servers, NetApp file servers, a student interactive teaching and research lab of high-end multimedia workstations, a Microsoft programming laboratory with fifty Windows XP workstations, a Unix/Linux laboratory with forty-five Linux workstations, a large vonware system for teaching a large cluster of Linux servers for computational work, and a cluster of Sun servers. The research infrastructure includes hundreds of workstations and PCs running Solaris, Windows XP, Linux, and Mac OSX; 7 terabytes of disk space are backed up by a Sun StorEdge LT02 with a 100-tape library unit.

Research labs contain several large Linux and Solaris clusters, Puma 500 and IBM robotic arms; a UTAH-MIT dexterous hand; an Adept-1 robot; mobile research robots; a real-time defocus range sensor; interactive 3-D graphics workstations with 3-D position and orientation trackers; prototype wearable computers, wall-sized stereo projection systems; see-through head-mounted displays; a networking testbed with three Cisco 7500 backbone routers, traffic generators, Ethernet switches, Sun Ray thin clients, and a 17-node (34CPU) IBM Netfinity cluster. The department uses a 3COM SIP IP phone system. The protocol was developed in the department.

The servers are connected on a gigabit network; all have remote consoles and remote power for easy maintenance after hours. The rest of the department’s computers are connected via a switched 100 Mb/s Ethernet network, which has direct connectivity to the campus OC-3 Internet and Internet2 gateways. The campus has 802.11 a/b wireless LAN coverage.

The research facility is supported by a full-time staff of professional system administrators and programmers, aided by a number of part-time student system administrators.