<p>Sam Lee: I admit my comments are somewhat self-aggrandizing. Guilty as charged. But I should emphasize that I am not saying UChicago will exceed Stanford or MIT or CMU or Berkeley in computer science soon or ever. I am just saying that given the intellectual atmosphere of the College, it’s realistic that they can get within the neighborhood of these schools before long. And that’s a good neighborhood.</p>
<p>Arrhenius: As for whether being a Renaissance man can help you as a computer scientist, I suggest you look up the biography of Herbert Simon, a University of Chicago graduate (BA, PhD), Nobel Laureate, intellectual’s intellectual, who is often considered one of the great innovators and early leaders in the field of computer science. </p>
<p>I am a graduate of Carnegie Mellon (not in computer science). I was at the school when Prof. Simon was still alive and teaching and researching. I have watched with pleasure over the last couple of decades as the science of software has evolved and grown and spread in amazing ways at the school. Looking back, it seems to me that notable advances were often led by interesting, engaging protean intellectuals such Professor Simon (artificial intelligence), Red Whitaker (robotics), Randy Pausch (computers and entertainment / education communication). Any one of those people would fit in nicely at the University of Chicago today. This is one of the reasons I believe the University has great potential in this area, perhaps even a sleeping giant.</p>
<p>One person doesn’t mean much one way or another. He went to U of Chicago in the 1930s anyway; it’s almost 2014 now. UChicago’s computer science department has been around for a long time and has had all the time in the world to “get into the neighborhood” but it hasn’t. If that’s the case, why would it be realistic to expect some major leap in the next, say, five years? I think all that “intellectual atmosphere” in your mind has been overblown. Those people fit nicely at CMU in the past and they would still fit nicely there today or other top schools, not just UChicago. It’s easy to get caught up by a school’s marketing and propaganda. The fact is many other schools are doing amazing things at the same time, some at an even more accelerated pace. There may very well be a number of schools that are further along to “get into the neighborhood”. You are just not aware of the development in those schools.</p>
<p>By self-aggrandizing, I was saying you seemed to imply other schools aren’t good at producing “Renaissance man” ("…makes UChicago different…"). I come to this board once in a while mostly because my school’s name pops up in the search function. It’s funny how frequently I would come across superiority complex like this on this board.</p>