Interesting Article related to Mike Franklin joining the Comp Sci department and the continued growth.
Franklin, who was head of Berkeley’s top-ranked computer science division, is a leading researcher in cloud computing and data analytics who pioneered ways to do real-time analysis of massive data sets.
The 57-year-old is a builder. Changes in academic programs, especially the top 20, can be measured in decades. U of C, ranked No. 30 in computer science and 15th in CS theory in 2018, according to U.S. News & World Report, had a strong enough foundation upon which to build a top-ranked computer science program.
“You can’t build a top program, starting from scratch,” Franklin says. “I was convinced the administration was 100 percent committed to building out a top-tier computer science department. It’s an opportunity to step on the gas.”
Spark became the basis for Big Data software called the Berkeley data-analytics stack, which he and his fellow researchers dubbed BDAS and pronounced “bad ass.” “This is about energy and collaboration.”
fbsdreams - I agree with what I think you are suggesting. CS is a natural for UChicago. CS is closely aligned with math, an area in which UChicago is extremely strong of course. The strongest CS programs are in the East (MIT / CMU / Harvard) or West (Berkeley / Stanford). UChicago can be the uber strong program in the midwest between the coasts, similar to economics. Add to that UChicago’s affiliations with and access to the facilities of DOE Labs. CS does not necessarily require huge investments in facilities, the way a world class full scope engineering school would. Add in a strong builder such as Franklin, and you have a very strong department in the making.
This is indeed good news, and Franklin is a big-time hire.
Don’t forget, though, that Northwestern will be a major competitor for dominance in Comp Sci in the midwest. They’ve recently committed to a $150M investment in this space (which is more than the $100M investment Chicago has made).
There is no reason two- three strong comp sci programs can’t exist in close geographical proximity- look at Stanford-Berkeley- CalTech. What would help that would be the presence of a strong industrial ecosystem eg Silicon Valley for Stanford-Berkeley-Caltech.
"The moment you attract someone like Mike, UIUC and Northwestern say, ‘We need to compete,’ " adds Andreas Cangellaris, provost at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
@Tiglathpileser agree completely and allows for collaboration.
So it looks like the hiring of this Berkeley guy could start an arms race for the comp sci depts in the midwest?
I agree, for Comp Sci, there is lots of room for collaboration and three great programs. The city of Chicago is also looking to invest in silicon-valley like corridor, it seems. As referenced above re the Discovery Partners Initiative:
Just to add a bit from the perspective of a CS faculty.
UChicago CS is growing at an exceptional rate, and effectively pulling in the best faculty from schools around the country (not just newly minted PhDs, but the top faculty at other well established CS departments).
Every year since MikeF joined UChicago, there have been some “signature” hires that have dramatically increased the reputation and stature of UChicago CS. 2017 saw the arrivals of senior faculty in network/security. 2018 saw the arrival of Becca Willette (ML expert from Wisconsin, generally top-10 in CS rankings). In 2019 (this year), it was just announced that Nick Feamster and Marshini Chetty will leave Princeton to come to UChicago CS. Note that these are all in addition to great hires of young junior faculty. UChicago CS expects to draw more of these star faculty from highly regarded CS departments in the years to come.
In contrast, Northwestern and UIUC are hiring at a much slower rate. While NU has a lot of resources committed to growth in the CS+X initiative, the actual growth has been fairly gradual.
Ooh I took a class with Prof Willette. She was a great professor, though ironically her class was much easier (IMO) than other ML classes we already offered (although better structured - and I was probably not really the intended audience)