Computer Science

Computer Science today is at the core of every human activity. You couldn't drive a car, fly an airplane, or perform surgery on a patient without the direct or indirect involvement of some aspect of a computer, computer science or computation. And yet, our field is only half a century old. It is a field where even its pioneers could not imagine, or believe, the dramatic changes that their efforts will bring. It allows us, the computer scientists, the opportunity to reshape what the world will be 20 years from now, and into the future.

Computer Science today is a broad discipline concerned with the science and technology of information processing, knowledge acquisition and autonomous learning. At its most mundane, it deals with the efficient retrieval of facts from very large data repositories, such as an airline reservation system. At the other extreme, it looks for answers to complex, deep, even metaphysical questions, such as "Can we endow silicon-based structures (computers) with the ability to think and evolve?"

At WPI today, you as a student, working with our faculty, will be able to gain fundamental knowledge in most areas of computer science, such as computer graphics, security, and the design of secure systems, computer architecture and performance evaluation.

Programs

We understand that to be effective in business and society, computer scientists must be able to do more than design computer systems--they need to be able to understand the interactions of their profession with the world, and to communicate with people who apply these systems for solutions of real-life issues. Therefore, our program also provides for courses in theoretical computer science, societal impacts of computing, and opportunities to develop communications skills.

Having acquired such knowledge, you will then have the opportunity to apply it and develop your design, reasoning and problem solving skills to real-world problems within some of America's leading high-tech corporations, such as Sun, Intel, eBay and Hewlett-Packard, and such research centers as SRI International and NASA Research Centers. Under our flexible, academically challenging WPI plan, students integrate course work, project activity, self-study, and personal experiences to understand the relationships among individuals, companies, business, society and computer science.

When they complete their studies, our students are equipped with a unique mix of practical skills, knowledge of applied techniques, and theoretical concepts that only a WPI education can provide. WPI offers both a major and a minor in computer science. Each enables students to tailor their degree to their own interests and to the needs and demands of society and industry. Undergraduates who wish to take greater advantage of WPI's extensive course offerings in CS and other disciplines may elect to pursue a double major or to enroll in the department's combined B.S./M.S. program.

Students whose interests focus on information and its uses, rather than on technology, may focus their studies in the area of information technology. There are two ways to do that: complete a computer science major with a management information systems (MIS) minor, or complete an MIS major within the Management Department with a CS minor. Another option worth considering is the computers with applications degree, which requires a cohesive set of five courses in addition to CS courses in a non-computer science applications area such as management or engineering discipline.

The capstone of a WPI education is the Major Project, usually completed in the senior year. In the Computer Science Department, students may select Major Project topics from such interface technologies as virtual reality or computers in music, such applications areas as artificial intelligence or databases, or such core areas as operating systems and computer networks. Some people prefer to write it on a theoretical topic.

Projects

WPI's campus in Central Massachusetts affords students countless opportunities to complete Major Projects under sponsorship of a host of electronics and computer firms in the city or in the nearby high-tech region. Corporations like EMC, Lucent and Hewlett-Packard, which hire many WPI grads, often serve as off-campus project sites for undergraduates. WPI also operates project centers in the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, Md.) and in California's Silicon Valley, a national center for electronic commerce, high technology and entrepreneurship.

Some recent project topics:

Facilities

The department supports numerous computer facilities, including laboratories dedicated to courses, as well as research, in artificial intelligence, computer graphics, data- and knowledge-base research, distributed systems, software engineering, and image processing. Equipment includes DEC Alpha machines running Linux, Sun UltraSPARC machines running Solaris, SGI machines of various types running IRIX, and numerous high-end PCs and X terminals providing access to servers and the campus network. WPI also operates high-performance facilities such as a supercomputer, Access Grid and Visual Wall, which may be used for projects.

Careers

The cutting-edge computer skills that come with a WPI bachelor's degree in computer science are a first-class ticket to a lucrative and satisfying career. The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that demand for computer scientists, computer engineers and systems analysts will more than double in the decade ending in 2006--a pretty remarkable statistic, given that the bureau is predicting only a 14 percent increase in demand for all other occupations. Companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Motorola and Apple actively recruit at WPI. Many of our more entrepreneurial students start their own companies, sometimes before they graduate, while others advance their education at WPI or at other graduate schools, including Carnegie Mellon, Ohio State, Stanford and the University of Illinois.

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Last modified: November 08, 2006 14:10:57