Message from the CS Department Head

DEAR FRIENDS,

Another exciting year is coming to an end. The Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas, or CS@UTD, continued a trend of rapid growth in 2022, adding more than 600 students and reaching close to 5,800 enrolled students, about 4,400 of whom are undergraduates. We have fully resumed face-to-face courses and a plethora of activities and events for students, faculty and staff. This fall, HackUTD hosted its largest hackathon ever, and our competitive programming team competed again in the ICPC World Finals.

Our faculty had another year of impressive achievements. Two junior faculty received prestigious NSF CAREER awards, one faculty was elected a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and two faculty were elected fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Computer science faculty received numerous other awards, including best paper awards at top conferences. They also established new research centers and drew attention from local and national media.

Our alumni network became stronger, and our graduates continued to be hired by a broad spectrum of technology companies, including those dominating the tech industry. The feedback we received from our industry friends and collaborators was highly positive.

We hired three tenure track faculty in 2022 and have started the process of hiring eleven more in the next academic cycle. CS@UTD has strengthened its collaborations with other departments and aligned its strategic plans within the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science to enable interdisciplinary hiring and collaboration.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area continued to experience unsurpassed economic growth, which has elevated our graduates’ living standards and professional opportunities.

December is a month of celebration, as well as a time of reflection on the past and future. As a new department head, I am looking forward to your support and expanded opportunities for collaboration.

Best Regards,

Dr. Ovidiu Daescu

Head of the Department of Computer Science at UT Dallas