Celebrating 50 Years

The Computer Science and Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Arlington is commemorating its 50th anniversary of computing. Since its inception in 1973, the department has grown from offering a master's degree in computer science as part of the Industrial Engineering department to becoming an independent entity. Presently, the department takes pride in providing a wide array of degree programs in computer science, computer engineering, and software engineering, attracting a diverse student body of over 4,000 enrollees. Join us as we reflect on five decades of innovation, education, and impactful research in the field of computer science.

Dr. Steve Underwood at a terminal in 1977

"As a computer science project, Dr. Steve Underwood worked with a psychiatrist from Baylor College of Medicine at Houston. Underwood designed a microcomputer system to monitor patients at the Houston sleep laboratory. The computer monitored body functions while sleeping." - 1977 UTA Yearbook

Program - October 13th - 14th, 2023

DAY 1: Friday, October 13th
Science & Engineering Innovation & Research Building Room 198 (SEIR 198)

DAY 2: Saturday, October 14th
Bluebonnet Ballroom, University Center

Event Highlights

Former chairs Dr. Roger Walker, Dr. Lynn Peterson, Dr. Bill Carroll, and Dr. Fillia Makedon joined the current department chair, Dr. Hong Jiang, for a panel discussion.

Dr. Jack Dongarra, our Friday's keynote speaker, stayed for a Q&A session with students after his inspiring talk.

UTA President Dr. Jennifer Cowley accepts a gift from the department, presented by Dr. Carter Tiernan.

Dr. Jeff Smith, an alumnus and entrepreneur, delivered Saturday

The celebration of the anniversary concluded with a spectacular drone show.

Videos

Before and After

Field trips

“Field trips to LTV, General Dynamics, Texas Instruments, and the DFW Airport Traffic Control Center helped to enlighten ACM members about the field of computing. The Associations for Computing Machinery held a forum which gave local experts in this field the opportunity to talk to UTA students. Together with the National ACM, this association sponsored a high school programming contest and an annual spring picnic.” - 1978 UTA Yearbook

Today, ACM

Today, ACM provides enriching learning opportunities through workshops and projects and has a membership of over 50 students. Notably, it hosts HackUTA, one of North Texas' largest 24-hour hackathons, where students innovate, design, develop, and present projects from the ground up.

Student at a 1960s computer.

1960's

1966 - First Computer Science courses offered (through IE Department)

Student standing by tape drives in the 1970s

1970's

1973 - An interdisciplinary Master's degree in Computer Science was approved
1973 - Dr. Roger Walker was selected as Chairman of the Graduate Studies Committee and Graduate Advisor for the program
1974 - First interdisciplinary MS CS degrees awarded
1976 - Ph.D. in Computer Science established under the engineering umbrella
1977 - Computer Science Section in the College of Engineering was established with its own budget
1978 - Bachelor of Science in CSE degree program established
1979 - First BS CSE degree awarded

Students at a 1980s computer.

1980's

1980 - Computer Science and Engineering Department established
1980 - Dr. Walker becomes the first CS Chairperson
1981 - First Ph.D. in CS awarded
1981 - Dr. Bill Carroll becomes Chairperson
1983 - CSE undergraduate program accredited by ABET
1983 - MS in Computer Science and Engineering (Computer Engineering) established
1989 - Software Engineering Center for Telecommunications established

Nedderman and Carrol

1990's

1990 - Honors Program in Parallel Processing (HiPP) established
1994 - Master of Software Engineering program established
1995 - CSE undergraduate program accredited by CSAB (first dual ABET/CSAB accredited program in Texas)
1996 - UTA ranked 20th in the USA in computer science research expenditures [$8,641,000]
1997 - UTA ranked 9th in the USA in computer science research expenditures [$15,187,000]
1998 - First offerings of CSE courses at distance via the web
1999 - Dr. Behrooz Shirazi becomes Chairperson

Faculty and students at a computer rack Faculty and students in a computing research lab Faculty and student in a computing research lab

2000's

2000 - Total students enrolled reaches 1,000
2005 - Dr. Walker serves as Interim Chairperson
2006 - Dr. Fillia Makedon becomes Chairperson
2006 - First joint PhD program internationally with the National Center for Scientific Research (NCSR), Demokritos, Greece established
2007 - First UTA-led International Conference PETRA
2007 - First joint MS program internationally and productively with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) program established

Faculty in front of some PCs

2010's

2011 - Engineering Research Building Completed
2013 - Dr. Lynn Peterson becomes Interim Chairperson
2014 - IUCRC NSF Center iPerform established
2015 - Dr. Hong Jiang becomes Chairperson (Current)
2015 - Total student enrollment exceeds 2,000
2017 - First Hackathon Hosted
2019 - CARIDA Research Center Opens

Circuit board Students at a hackathon

2020's

2020 - First time OurCS@DFW and Student Computing Research Festival (SCRF)
2021 - Graduate certificates in CS and CpE created
2021 - MS in Data Science program established
2021 - Total student enrollment exceeds 3,000
2022 - Total student enrollment exceeds 4,000

Degrees Offered

Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Ph.D. in Computer Science,
M.S. in Computer Engineering, M.S. in Computer Science, M.S. in Data Science,
Master of Software Engineering,
B.S. in Computer Engineering, B.S. in Computer Science, B.S. in Software Engineering

Our 50th Year in CSE

Faculty Highlights

Faculty
- 44 Tenure-Track
- 27 Non-Tenure-Track
- 18 Adjunct
Current faculty members include:
- 10 NSF Career Awardees
- 4 IEEE Fellows
- 2 AIMBE Fellows
- 1 ACM Fellow

Students

Current Enrollment:
- 2,337 Bachelor's
- 2,139 Master's
- 161 Ph.D.
Graduates (Since 1974)
- 3,784 Bachelor's
- 5,767 Master's
- 323 Ph.D.

Achievements

R-1 University - Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Ed.
Texas Tier One University
#1 in Texas for First Generation Students
#4 in the nation for Veterans and Their Families, Military Times, 2023

Rankings

#60 Overall
#20 Operating Systems
#14 High Performance Computing
#59 Mobile Computing
#29 Databases
#79 Computer Security
#53 Software Engineering
#60 AI, Machine Learning & Computer Vision and NLP
[CSRankings.org, 2018-2023 publications in all venues including non-default ones, as of July 2023]

Major Research Areas:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
- Computer Vision, Medical Imaging, Image and Video Processing
- Machine Learning, Neural Networks and Deep Learning, Data Mining
- Robotics
BIG DATA AND DATA SCIENCE
- Big Data Modeling, Analysis, Optimization, Scalability
- Databases, Knowledge Bases, Information Systems
- High Performance Computing, Cloud Computing
- Spatial, Temporal, Spatio-Temporal and Moving Objects Databases
- Bioinformatics and Health Informatics
COMPUTER AND NETWORK SYSTEMS
- Computer Networks
- Internet of Things, Embedded Systems, Mobile Computing
- Sustainable Computing
HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERFACES
- Assistive Technologies, Pervasive Computing
- Human-Computer Interaction, Human Robot Interaction
- Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
SECURITY
- Cybersecurity
- Information Security
- Privacy
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
- Agile Methods and Software Project Management
- Software Design
- Software Testing and Program Analysis
- Automated Software Engineering
Research Highlights:
- Over $11.23M research grants awarded between 9/21-8/22