What is happening with Computer Science at Yale?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
61

<p>I think there is general agreement that Yale needs to open its purse strings and hire more profs. I had dinner with a CS prof this weekend and he was telling me about the hiring spree that is going on at a long list of schools. When I asked about Yale he said that when he thinks about CS, he doesn’t even think about Yale. He also told me of a CS prof. who Columbia is rumored to have offered a half a million a year to hire. So, things are certainly heating up and Yale had better get on board the train before it leaves the station.</p>

62

<p>Falcon1: how about you start a petition in Change.org, to the Yale Corporation and Peter Salovey, to ask that they allocate $17M – the same amount that was used to renovate the President’s House – to endow immediately three professorships in the Computer Science Department (plus a lab with the ample leftover), with the hiring decisions to be made entirely by the CS faculty?</p>

<p>(Unfortunately, I am not good enough with Internet stuff to do something like that; never took any of that “vocational” stuff :smile: )</p>

63

<p>According to the Crimson, Yale is paying for one full-time staff position to support CS50 and maybe more: <a href=“Harvard Approves Joint Yale CS50 Venture, Malan Says | News | The Harvard Crimson”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/26/cs50-yale-harvard-approves/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

</p>

64

<p>@4thfloor I would but I have no dog in this fight other than I like Yale and would love to see the CS dept. improve. Not sure why the administration seems oblivious to what is going at their peer institutions all around them but I have a feeling the Ballmer news certainly got their attention. Hopefully, change is on its way.</p>

65

<p>@gibby There are currently 56 TF’s for CS50 at Harvard. Let’s hope the ramp up of kids taking the course at Yale goes slowly or they won’t have the staffing to cope with it.</p>

66

<p>@Falcon1: yes, we need someone at Yale CS to start the petition, because the signatures will have to come from CS students and faculty there. Too bad neither of us qualify, even though we both like Yale and are concerned about what’s going on!</p>

67

<p>^^ Agreed!</p>

68

<p>There’s an interesting article on the Harvard-Yale CS 50 collaboration in today’s Wall Street Journal:</p>

<p><a href=“Coming Soon to Yale: A Class Taught by Harvard - WSJ”>http://online.wsj.com/articles/coming-soon-to-yale-a-class-taught-by-harvard-1417746212&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

69

<p>While the CS department has not? has not been allowed to? hire for the past 10 years, apparently the Philosophy department has been able to make “a number of lateral hires,” significant enough to propel the department back up, to #5 overall, and #1 in 17th Century Philosophy.</p>

<p><a href=“Philosophy rises in rankings - Yale Daily News”>http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/12/05/web-yheadline-here-174/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Also, the Economics department gets a new professorship in honor of the great David Swensen:</p>

<p><a href=“New professorship honors Swensen, Berry - Yale Daily News”>http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/12/05/new-professorship-honors-swensen-berry/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This is all good news, for the Philosophy and Economics departments, but how about the CS department?</p>

70

<p>^^. They’re virtually expanding their department by 50%, thanks to Ballmer! :)</p>

71

Good news!

http://cpsc.yale.edu/faculty-position-openings

Maybe pressure from this discussion worked? :slight_smile:

72

Well, Bryan Ford (http://www.brynosaurus.com/ ) who works in the areas that this position is trying to recruit, is leaving for EPFL according to his home page. So this may just be to fill that vacancy…

73

Darn!

74

CS grad students are calling for change (see links below to two articles in today’s Yale Daily News). It sounds like things are problematic for them and don’t seem much better for undergrads.

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/02/17/cs-grad-students-release-open-letter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cs-grad-students-release-open-letter

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/02/17/falling-behind-in-computer-science/

75

^^^ Thanks.

"Stelios Rousoglou ’18, who has applied to become a teaching fellow, said he is hopeful that CS50 will help the administration realize the importance of increasing the size of the Computer Science Department. He added that until now, the administration has treated computer science just like every other department, even though no other department has seen such a large increase in students majoring in the field over the past few years.

“I understand how people fear that our CS Department can’t handle another increase in majors and potential majors, but I believe that the administration is bound to see that and take immediate action,” Rousoglou said. “Why they haven’t done so? So far, God only knows. And Salovey.”"

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/02/16/cs50-begins-hiring-process/

76

Wow, I just read your second link. A shocking state of affairs!

  • Over the past 25 years, computers have changed the world, yet our department is the same size it was in 1989.
  • With so few professors, Yale’s department has no choice but to ignore entire areas of computer science.
  • Yale has become a risky choice for graduate students who often have to hinge their entire degree on a single faculty member. Fewer and fewer students are willing to take this risk; this year, only two students accepted their offers to attend Yale’s PhD program, compared to five last year and 10 the year before.
  • ...the faculty shortage also translates into a shortage of teaching fellows.
  • ...there is a pervasive feeling that the administration simply does not care about the subject. Despite an excellent publication record, the small size of our department means Yale is not seen as an exciting place for computer science.

From the other link:

  • Computer Science Professor Michael Fischer, who arrived at Yale in 1981, said all attempts made so far by the Computer Science Department to convey their problems to the administration have “fallen on deaf ears.
  • “The difficulties we are facing are about not enough options at advanced levels and not enough professors to teach everything,” Segal said. “So, taking a very popular and well liked robotics professor and make him teach CS50 instead means he can’t also teach robotics now,” he added, referring to Brian Scassellati, who will teach [Harvard's] CS50 at Yale.

and these from the comments:

  • ...the number of signatories has now risen to 25 out of 33 Yale PhD students.
  • Because the current mindset is that there are not enough female faculty teaching computer science, so the slots are deliberately being held open for female candidates. Nice sentiment, unfortunately the reality is there simply aren't enough female computer science professors to go around.
77

@4thfloor Yes, it’s concerning, and it doesn’t look like things are going to change any time soon. So in deciding whether or not to choose Yale, CS students should assume that this is how things will likely be for the next four years and consider whether or not other things about Yale would compensate for that. I’m guessing that for some students, they would, but for others, they wouldn’t.

78

From today’s Yale Daily News—student petition calls for CS faculty increase:

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/03/02/student-petition-calls-for-cs-faculty-increase/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=student-petition-calls-for-cs-faculty-increase

79

My son’s desire to major in CS has been killed with only two classes. This is unusual for him. I support his choice to change, but I’m disappointed in the Yale CS team. How can they take a 100% ready, willing and able student, and kill his enthusiasm?

80

@ElMimino‌ , which two classes? 201 and 223?