Reinstating Computer Science Major

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
1

<p>This is an excerpt from Dean Altiero's e-mail newsletter:</p>

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As we begin the 2012-13 fiscal year and anticipate the beginning of the new academic year on August 27, I can assure you that there are many more exciting announcements to come. One of those will be the re-introduction of computer science education and research at Tulane. We have hired a number of new computer science faculty members, we are offering an increasing number of computer science courses, and we are creating a department in which computer science and affiliated faculty can develop interdisciplinary programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. This new computer science department will be located close to our Center for Computational Science and we anticipate strong collaboration between them and between the computer science faculty and faculty from across campus who are engaged at the interface of a broad range of disciplines with computing. There is no doubt that this new program will attract strong enrollment and research funding but its success will also be highly dependent on the support of individuals and corporations who value the importance of computer science education and research at Tulane.

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<p>I would like to think the interest and communications on this forum played a small part in this development, although I am sure it was very small. The need from students was clear, the need from industry is clear, and interestingly the need from the growing New Orleans hub of IT was being made clear. There were various complaints from the locals that they needed more locally educated IT people, and it wasn't very veiled that they meant Tulane. Hopefully there will be some funding from these local businesses as well.</p>

2

<p>GE has opened a new corporate office in NOLA [General</a> Electric chooses New Orleans for 300-job tech office | NOLA.com](<a href=“http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/02/general_electric_chooses_new_o.html]General”>http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/02/general_electric_chooses_new_o.html) to will provide software development and information technology support to the company’s financial services arm. They were recruiting heavily on campus this year, even before the re-initiation of the major. Its all good.</p>

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<p>Bravo…its about time Tulane to open the CS (Computer Science) Dept. as IT is also considered the backbone of the school and society in general. Those who master the information technology (IT) will have the brightest future. Congratulation and keep up the good work.</p>

4

<p>Maybe this will be the impetus for Tulane to break the top 50 or 40 on USNWR. I know of no other school in that category that does not have a CS or EE program, so this is great news!</p>

5

<p>Great to hear!</p>

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<p>Here’s the release from Tulane with the plan to roll out the program over the next few years [Tulane</a> University - Computer science an essential program, says dean](<a href=“http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/070612_computer_science.cfm?utm_source=nwe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nwe]Tulane”>http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/070612_computer_science.cfm?utm_source=nwe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nwe)</p>

7

<p>I am so thrilled to hear this. I’m a math-oriented Econ/Mid East Poli Sci major, but even without going full boat, I’m crossing my fingers that reintroduction of faculty will let me jump in a few classes and grab some skills to add as auxiliaries on my CV. Though it will require me to actually pay attention in class, rather than playing around with java or getting distracted…</p>

8

<p>freephoenix, hope you will take advantage of such offerings. DS just graduated from Tulane and never took any CS class. He now feels that he could really use some CS education for his job. Luckily, his employer will pay (at least partially) for his CS classes as long as he has decent grades to show.</p>