The UCSB Computer Science Department in the University of California Santa Barbara's College of Engineering

UCSB College of Engineering

The College of Engineering is one of the three undergraduate colleges at the University of California, Santa Barbara.As of August 2007, there were 146 faculty, 1,319 undergraduate students, and 674 graduate students...

 was founded in 1979. It offers Bachelor of Science

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

, Master of Science

Master of Science

A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

, and Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 degrees in Computer Science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

 and provides courses for the Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree in Computer Science offered through the College of Letters and Science. Since 1999, the CS Department has offered the Computer Engineering

Computer engineering

Computer engineering, also called computer systems engineering, is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and...

 Program in conjunction with Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

 Department. UCSB has a strong tradition in the computational sciences, having been the #3 ARPAnet

ARPANET

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...

 host.

According to the National Research Council

United States National Research Council

The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...

, the department's PhD program is ranked 4th in the United States. It is ranked 40th in the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities

Academic Ranking of World Universities

The Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...

 among other Computer Science departments.

History

Between 1996 and 2006, the CS Department experienced growth in both students and funding. During that time the department's undergraduate program more than doubled from 246 to 638 students. However, enrollment began to follow a national trend of decreased enrollment since its peak in 1992. In the same time period, the departments funding received a six-fold increase from $1.3 million from 22 grants to $8.1 million from 41 grants.

The CS Department's PhD program has also grown since its inception. The PhD program began in 1988 and saw its first graduate in 1990. In the 2006-2007 school year, the CS department saw a record 25 PhD students graduate. As of the 2007-2008 school year, the department has 100 PhD students and 50 Masters students.

Degrees

Undergraduate Degrees

B.S. in Computer Science

The Computer Science B.S. program is a four year, 180 unit track that is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET.

B.A. in Computer Science

The B.A. in Computer Science is offered through the UCSB's College of Letters and Science, but requires students to pass both lower and upper division programming courses through the Computer Science Department. Emphases in the B.A. include: Computational Biology, Computational Economics, and Computational Geography.

Graduate Degrees

Masters in Computer Science

Masters students can optionally emphasize in Computational Science and Engineering (CSE).

PhD in Computer Science

Doctoral students can optionally emphasize in Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), Technology and Society, or Cognitive Science.

Double Majors and Letters and Science Minors

Students in the College of Engineering are able to double major in a Letters and Science or Creative Studies major, but may not double major solely in the Engineering Department. Even with this option, freshman have up to 15 regular quarters to complete their degree while transfer students have up to 9 regular quarters. Students may minor in any subject listed in the College of Letters & Science minor subjects.

Five Year Combined B.S. / M.S

A combined BS/MS Program in Computer Science provides an opportunity to earn both degrees in five years. Students interested in the program begin meeting with their department late sophomore to early junior year.

Five Year B.S. / M.S. in Computer Science

Five Year B.S. in Computer Science / M.A. in Economics

Five-Year B.S./B.A. in Creative Studies and M.S. in Computer Science

The College of Creative Studies

College of Creative Studies

The College of Creative Studies is one of the three undergraduate colleges at the University of California, Santa Barbara, unique within the University of California system in terms of structure and philosophy...

 and the Computer Science Department offers a five year BS/MS program for qualified students.

Five-Year B.S. in Computer Engineering / M.S. in Computer Science

Courses

There are over 80 courses offered through the Computer Science Department. They are divided into three categories: lower division courses (numbered 1-99) prepare Freshman and Sophomore students for their major and are required to progress out of the Computer Science pre-major, upper division courses (numbered 100-199) are required for the student's major and build upon lower division courses, and graduate courses (numbered 200-599) are offered only to graduate students or undergraduates on an accelerated curriculum program.

Computer Labs

CS students have access to two primary computer labs: the Computer Science Instructional Lab (CSIL) and the Graduate Student Lab (GSL). CSIL is the CS Department's main facility and is primarily used for completing homework, studying, and interacting with other students. The lab is generally open for use 18 hours a day and offers instructors from the late afternoon to the evening. The CSIL Lab also includes a server dedicated to remote access. This allows students to access required applications from anywhere on campus without being physically in the lab. This benefit comes at the cost of sharing the workstation with varying amounts of users. The Graduate Student Lab is lab dedicated to Graduate students and their work that is open self-service 24/7. The GSL features a projector and conference tables for graduate students to practice presentations.

Study Abroad

The CS Department actively encourages students to utilize the University of California's Education Abroad Program

University of California Education Abroad Program

The University of California Education Abroad Program is a study abroad program available to University of California students and students who attend universities abroad with which EAP has an exchange...

 (EAP). Studying abroad usually occurs during the student's junior year or the summer before and can last from a university quarter to an entire year.

Research

Research is a crucial component of the CS Department. As of 2006, the CS Department maintains over 20 research labs under its auspices.

A valuable resource to the CS Department is the 65 workstation CISE/IGERT Beowulf Cluster. It is dedicated to computing large amounts of information supplied by CS researchers and anyone from UCSB who needs access can apply through one of the campus' faculty investigators. Infrastructure for the research was partially funded by the National Science Foundation through grants EIA-0080134 and DGE02-21715.
The amongst the department's strengths are cloud computing, computer security, database systems, and human-computer interaction.