Document Type

Essay

Publication Date

12-2013

Abstract

The Fiftieth Anniversary of Computer Science Classes (and) The Twentieth Anniversary of the Department of Computer Science

Forward:

It is a pleasure to record the History of the Department of Computer Science, as I taught computer science throughout the first twenty years of the department's existence and the first thirty‐one years that DePauw University granted computer science majors. During these years, many faculty members joined the department, and many departed, each leaving an imprint on the department. The natural evolution of a new department necessitates the slow process of acquiring tenure track positions, as the numbers of majors increase. Several term appointments of faculty members helped the department teach its courses, before the full complement of seven tenure track positions stabilized.

The three founding members of the department spent or are spending essentially their entire university teaching careers serving the DePauw Department of Computer Science and its students. The teaching careers of the remaining five current, tenured members of the department tell a similar story: Three faculty members teaching briefly at other schools before joining the department and the remaining two, arriving at DePauw immediately after receiving their PhDs. Therefore, the core of the department at the time of the 175th anniversary milestone forms a group with significant dedication to DePauw, our students and to each other. Every day that I walk into the department doors, I am grateful for such wonderful colleagues.

People (faculty members, students and staff members) define departments, and each student leaves computer science classes forever changed by the knowledge he or she has acquired and by the friendships made with other students and with faculty members. Over the course of the time period that this history covers, the department collectively taught wonderful students who left our department to join the fields of industry, research, and education and to shape the future of computer science. I am proud to dedicate this history document to our students and to my colleagues.

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