2019 Year In Review

Ming Lin
Elizabeth Stevinson Iribe Chair of Computer Science

As we bid farewell to 2019, we look forward to 2020 and a new decade of continuing growth and expansion in the newly constructed The Brendan Iribe Center of Computer Science and Engineering. One of the most significant events for Department of Computer Science (CS) at the University of Maryland (UMD) at College Park in 2019 was the opening of the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering in January for classes to be held in its auditorium for the first time.  The CS Department moved in to the Iribe Center in Spring and celebrated its grand opening in April.

Our faculty, students, and alumni excel in every regard: from major honors and awards to impactful research, as recognized by the leading professional societies and conference best paper awards.  These recognition's indicate the tremendous influence of our faculty’s and student’s work in the respective fields and in our society over time.

The CS department started Limited Enrollment Program in Fall 2019 to better manage the exponential growth of the CS majors (over 4,000 students) and to ensure high-quality education with the best possible experience.

In addition to the rapid increase in the size of our undergraduate students, the demand for graduate degrees in Computer Science has also accelerated.   In Spring 2019, CS Department received more than 2,400 applicants -- more than 30% increase over that of 2018 and accounting for about 50% of the College’s applicants.  In Fall 2019, we saw the largest graduate student population (380 students) in the history of the department.

In an effort to prepare our incoming graduate students to start research as early as possible, in August 2019 we launched the first Computer Science & UMIACS Computer and Computational Sciences Research Symposium, which was a huge success and will now become our annual event for the incoming cohorts.

While our department is expanding in its student population, Maryland Center for Women in Computing (MCWIC) keeps pace and has continued to provide incredible service in widening participation of women and other underrepresented minority groups through its large arrays of programs, including CompSciConnect, K-12 outreach, AI4All camps, Tutoring, Peer Mentoring Clusters, etc. It further expanded its reach and established the Iribe Initiative for Inclusion and Diversity in Computing to double its program capacity and introduced additionally new programs like Teaching Assistant Training in 2019, benefiting more than 3,000 K-12 and UMD students.  MCWIC celebrated its fifth Anniversary in December.

All these activities would not be possible without the generous support of our alumni, parents, industry partners, the State of Maryland, and federal research grants.  We are very grateful to the generous contribution of Volpi Family Foundation and Maryland E-nnovate Initiative Fund that help the Department establish two new professorships for the development of our budding young star faculty.  Also thanks to the Wenchel and the Mokhtarzada families, the CS Department has added new scholarships and an entrepreneur lounge.

Our Corporate Partners in Computing (CPIC) program has about 30 partners with more joining this Spring.  In addition to working with faculty on innovative research, corporate partners support student-led events, such as hackathons and offer soft skills development courses to students.

In June 2019, we were deeply mourned by the sad demise of Professor Emeritus Raymond (Ray) Miller. Dr. Ray Miller joined our department in 1988 as the Director of the Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Science (CESDIS).

2019 has been an amazing year of impressive growth in so many dimensions for the University of Maryland Computer Science department. Our faculty, students, and alumni garnered national recognition and international visibility for their socially relevant discoveries and impactful research.

As a celebration to send off 2019 and starting a new decade in 2020, I am very pleased and excited to share with you some highlights of the outstanding accomplishments of our faculty, students, and staff, as well as some major events in the UMD CS.

I would also like to invite you to stay connected with us and share with us any exciting news of yours, as we embark on a new year and a new decade together!