Strategic Plan, April 2007

In recognition of the increasingly pervasive nature of computing and with the ambitious goal of increasing its national ranking toward the top 10 public programs, the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) pursues an aggressive strategy of recruiting key faculty to build academic centers of excellence while ensuring that our curriculum remains relevant to the rapidly evolving needs of tomorrow’s information technology leaders. ICS’ centers of excellence encourage innovation through interdisciplinary academic collaborations across the campus and industrial partnerships; the centers stimulate the development of advanced technologies and applications and lead to the spin off of new companies, which in turn stimulate the local and global economies. ICS strives to support UC Irvine’s enrollment growth mandates while maintaining careful attention to student quality. ICS’ recent transition from department to school status brings tremendous opportunities for accelerated achievement of these strategic objectives.

Mission and Structure

The mission of the Bren School of ICS is to lead the innovation of new information and computing technology and study its economic, commercial, and social significance through collaborative engagements while producing a diverse, educated workforce that can adapt to the rapidly changing discipline and stimulate further advancement of technology. Consistent with the mission of the University of California, ICS is committed to computing for all: to innovate across a broad range of computing topics; to serve a central role in meeting the computing needs of the campus by establishing widespread interdisciplinary research collaborations and educational programs; to reach out to all populations, including underutilized domestic talent, thereby encouraging widespread participation and diverse perspectives in the field; and to stimulate the county, state, national and world economies as a leader in computing.

ICS was founded as an independent department in 1967-68. This was fairly early for computer science departments, the earliest founded in 1962 (Purdue), and contemporaneous with the earliest in the UC system (UCLA’s Department of Computer Science also founded in 1968). ICS formally transitioned from department to school status in 2002, establishing the first school/college–level academic unit in the University of California focused on the computing disciplines. The Bren School of ICS is now comprised of three academic departments – Computer Science, Informatics, and Statistics. The organizational structure of the School, its degree programs (and transitional initiatives) and the hybrid decentralized/centralized administrative model that characterizes the Bren School are addressed in other sections of this document.

ICS faculty and students are encouraged to be forward thinking, interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial in their research and education.
Innovation: Faculty and students work to create pioneering advances for the next generation, applicable to many scholarly and scientific fields. A commitment to curiosity and solving problems in novel ways are their passions.
Collaboration: Research, teaching and learning are collaborative at the Bren School – collaborative with virtually all other academic units at UCI and also with industry both locally and internationally. Students are encouraged to work in teams, with research groups and industrial partners, to further their innovations.
Stimulation: Through innovative and collaborative research and education, the Bren School community stimulates society worldwide. ICS research has made vital technological, economic and social contributions through the establishment of the Internet, security and privacy, software development, and biotechnology industries in California.

Innovation, Collaboration, Stimulation … that’s ICS.

Research Agenda

ICS has grown from a small department of five faculty in 1968 to a faculty of close to 70 today. Even in 1968, the faculty spanned a spectrum of computer science topics – computer architecture/systems design, artificial intelligence, educational technology, and social impacts of computing – a much broader agenda than other computer science programs at the time and for decades to come; breadth has been a hallmark of ICS, and something that attracts both new faculty scholars and students alike. Shortly after our founding, theoretical computer science, graphics and software engineering became prominent in ICS. More recently, several additional areas have developed into identified areas of concentration and excellence within ICS, as delineated in the Table 1.

Research and Faculty Growth Areas

In what follows the table of current areas of excellence, we express recruitment priorities. These are intended to strategically recognize and enhance areas of excellence and also to expand into new areas for ICS that are emerging fields in the disciplines. Priority recruitments are discussed by department, although some are interdepartmental.

Computer Science

The Department of Computer Science is internationally recognized for its unique group of faculty and researchers who conducts research on the core issues in computer science as well as the forefront of interdisciplinary contributions of the discipline. From mathematical theories, data structures and algorithms to the systems software that employ them and the various architectures on which they execute, innovation in computer science is essential to developing the next advances in computer technology and applications.

One of the highest priorities for hiring in Computer Science in the near future is in the general area of Systems Software. Systems research is at the very core of computer science. Looking at the top traditional systems conferences, one finds that the universities who dominate these conferences are exactly the top 20 universities. Systems research continues to be deeply relevant to computer science. Systems graduates are typically among those students who have the highest starting salaries, go to the top universities, and get the largest research grants. UCI is deficient on the software side of systems research – operating systems, compilers, virtual machines – proportionally underrepresented, while they are proportionally well represented at almost every top 20 computer science department in the country.

In addition to establishing a greater presence in computer systems, we plan to hire in several strategically chosen areas where UCI already has considerable strength such as algorithms, artificial intelligence and high performance computing. We plan to target specific areas where we already have highly regarded researchers (enabling us to attract top candidates) but do not yet have sufficient critical mass to have a group that ranks top in the country:

• Security/Cryptography: This is an area with expanding funding opportunities and projected industry shortfalls. Our faculty in this area are nationally recognized researchers and have proven to be highly successful in graduate advising as well. We plan to expend into the areas of applied cryptography, network and wireless security and intrusion detection.
• Databases: Our database faculty have been extremely successful at leading large–scale multi–campus projects. Such projects bring in millions of dollars in research funding and also give us valuable national visibility. To continue and expand upon these efforts more faculty are needed – specifically hiring two faculty members in data modeling and database systems will raise our database group to the top five in the country.
• Mobile Computing: As computing platforms move away from desktop machines toward pervasive systems embedded in the environment, mobile computing is critical for many areas of scientific research. This timely research area builds upon strength in the CS department in embedded and large–scale systems as well as networking and ubiquitous computing which spans CS and Informatics.

There are several areas of computer science in which the department has never had coverage or has very little; some are emerging interdisciplinary topics. Strategic hiring in these under–represented or new areas will enable a more collaborative faculty and provide significant funding opportunities. These growth areas include:

• Visual Computing: The goal of visual computing is to combine human and computer visual and image processing capabilities to enable communication at higher levels of abstraction between humans, and between humans and machines. We are currently recruiting a faculty member in the area of computer vision. A few additional hires would give the area more strength and would serve as a catalyst for collaborative work with faculty in databases, computational geometry and machine learning.
• Immersive Telepresence and Telemedicine: Immersive telepresence is concerned with the development of communication and computing technology that allow one to feel present or give the appearance of presence somewhere other than one’s true location, and possibly even to alter the remote location. Work in this area incorporates research in information management, multimedia, robotics, visual computing and ubiquitous computing. Telemedicine is one of the most critical applications of telepresence, allowing the delivery of clinical and surgical care in remote locations. Faculty in ICS are already involved in collaborative projects in telemedicine in conjunction with faculty in the School of Medicine.
• Artificial Intelligence: This has been a growing area in computer science over the past 40 years, with tremendous impact on theory and technology. Currently, our AI program (other than machine learning) is shouldered on a single faculty member but nevertheless carries a substantial reputation. An additional hire would help maintain and grow our strength in this area.
• Web Science: This is an interdisciplinary area that studies how the world wide web affects human behavior and society. On the CS side, there are very exciting research opportunities in machine learning, game theory, graph theory and security. All these areas build on existing strength in the department and will foster new work in these rapidly growing areas of research.

Informatics

The Department of Informatics combines the strengths of the technological underpinning of computing along with a social perspective. The underpinning stems from years of strength in software engineering, especially leading research in Web technologies and hypermedia, software architecture, specification and testing, software comprehension, tools and design, among others. The social dimension grew from the work of faculty who were pioneers in studying the use and impact of information and information systems in organizations, including collaborative work technologies, user interfaces, and large–scale social and policy impacts. These areas are critical to our identity and our top ranking internationally. A high priority is to strengthen our expertise and programs by growing these areas of excellence:

• Software Engineering: The ever increasing application of computing and software is pushing this area forward in theoretical aspects of design, specification, analysis, testing, comprehension, and maintenance along with the tools that support the software endeavor and new processes such as open source development, global software development, and extreme programming.
• Human–Computer Interaction: This area examines the relationship of individual end users with computing systems, encompassing the principles of useful and usable systems, methodologies for evaluation with individuals and groups, in the workplace, at home, and in society at large.
• Computer–supported Cooperative Work: Most work activity today is distributed with computer tools mediating activity, and home and entertainment activities are increasingly distributed using Web and Internet technologies. Opportunities for research in this area are ever expanding, and our corporate sponsors are especially interested in analysis of their work in these challenging situations.
• Organizations and Technology: Understanding a problem around technology often requires understanding how that technology relates to the culture and history of an organization and even public policy. Researchers in this area must have experience grounded in computing technology but balanced by understanding organizational design, impacts, and collective experience of technology. Faculty in this area will be greatly helpful to new interdisciplinary programs such as the new major in Business Information Management and a proposed program in Management Design and Innovation.

There are several areas in which the department needs to expand so as to stay in advance of emerging technologies and related research and curricula. These are new, fertile areas for research funding, graduate student support, and employment opportunities for students at all areas. These new areas, well connected to our existing strengths, include:

• Ubiquitous Computing: Ubiquitous computing is permeating many application areas. An area of great promise for research and funding is immersive telepresence, including application to areas to emergency response, health care and new media applications. Recruiting in this area would help bridge Informatics to faculty in Computer Science, Arts, and Health Sciences.
• Design and Interaction Design: This theme extends multiple disciplines listed above around design and adds a concern for the human individual and social experience of technology. This theme includes innovative interfaces (e.g. information visualization and ambient computing), new kinds of theory to design and analyze such systems, and architectures for building them. Design is a theme supported by many across campus and particularly builds on collaborations with the Paul Merage School of Business, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, the Schools of Social Science and Social Ecology, Humanities, and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts.
• Security and Privacy: As security and privacy have increasing impact on daily life and financial consequences for our society, greater attention needs to be directed at the common failures people make using even existing measures. Faculty in Informatics would take usability, organizational, and social perspectives in this research. Support from NSF and government agencies have identified usable systems as a key problem. There is a great deal of growth in the research community with conferences such as SOUPS and journal venues.
• Environmental Informatics: Environmental Informatics deals with the greatest challenge facing humanity, its growth and impact on the planet. Informatics faculty are already collaborating with those in other schools, including the Biological and Physical Sciences and the Paul Merage School of Business, among others to forge proposals in this area. It is an area that focuses on the creation of information systems to help scientists share environmental data, and to provide them with tools to analyze, model, present, and interpret those data.
• Game/Entertainment Culture and Technology: User experience, engagement, and the theory of massive phenomena make this area inherently interdisciplinary with difficult challenges involving software, design, and user experiences. It is also an area with broadening appeal across a diverse set of researchers and schools. Collaborations are growing among the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, the School of Humanities, and the School of Social Sciences.
• Science and Society: Related to other themes in Informatics, a new area seeks to place technology and science in a critical, theoretical perspective. NSF’s recent emphasis on developing a science of design is one example. More specifically, NSF has a new, interdisciplinary program in science and society. This area has the potential to attract researchers and students of diverse backgrounds and builds upon several areas of strength in the department including human–computer interaction and organizations and technology.
• Health and Medical Informatics: Working from an Informatics perspective, problems in the health sciences and medicine lend themselves to usability, ubiquity, design, and other research themes above. Research programs produce graduates finding abundant research and funding opportunities (e.g. NIH), especially in applications that merge ubiquitous computing and home health care – e.g. instrumenting the homes of seriously disabled people for monitoring and controlling their health.

Statistics

The Department thinks about research areas on two dimensions, specific topics within the discipline of statistics and domains of application/collaboration. One important modern area within statistics is the development of non–parametric statistical methods, i.e., methods that do not require strong, and often over–simplified, assumptions. Recruitment in this area would complement the work done by the current faculty. The Department also would like to add expertise in the modeling of spatio–temporal data (relevant for example in medical imaging in the health sciences and network data in the social sciences). In terms of domains of application, the Department recognizes the existence of a large number of opportunities in the health and biological sciences. Some existing faculty do work in this area but the Department considers it a priority to increase the number of individuals available address the many opportunities, perhaps in the context of a campus–wide effort in biostatistics. Additionally, the development of the Programs in Public Health, Nursing and in Pharmaceutical Sciences, along with other campus colleagues in ICS, Biological Sciences, and in the School of Medicine, collaborative opportunities are tremendous, as is the opportunity to develop a graduate program in biostatistics.

The recent transfer of the Center for Statistical Consulting requires the recruitment of a faculty director to replace Dr. Robert Newcomb, the founding (and now retired) director of the Center. The campus demand for sufficient statistical consulting services has expanded and will continue to do so with the growth of the campus. Additionally, the competitive nature of extramural research funding requires the presence of strong statistical support for the analysis of empirical data in a variety of fields. Among those seeking increased support are researchers from the general campus, School of Medicine, Public Health, UCI Medical Center, as well as off–campus investigators. An enhanced Center under the leadership and direction of a faculty director will provide a much–needed resource for each of these areas, ultimately strengthening the research and funding potential of faculty across UCI.

One of the goals of Statistics has been to assume full responsibility for statistics service teaching on the campus. The best way to achieve this is through the recruitment and appointment of a Lecturer (PSOE).

Statistics continues negotiations to recruit a senior statistician through the career partner program. The anticipated Career Partner FTE for Professor Jessica Utts (UCDavis) is included in our Summary of Proposed Faculty Recruitments.

Arts Computation Engineering (ACE)

In the ACE program, we plan to expand through joint hires with the Claire Trevor School of the Arts – Dance, Drama or Music in areas such as motion capture, sound design, electronic music – and/or the School of Humanities – Film & Media Studies or Women’s Studies in areas such as visual studies, techno–science studies, feminist theory. These new colleagues would be appointed in Informatics or Computer Science.

Faculty

The Bren School is committed to meeting the computing needs of the campus by establishing widespread interdisciplinary research collaborations and education programs. In particular, strong collaborative ties exist among 24 members of the UCI faculty community resulting in joint (non–salaried) faculty appointments in the Bren School. These joint appointees include faculty with primary appointments in EECS, Business, Mathematics, Anthropology, Cognitive Sciences, Music, Studio Art, and Education, with prior and pending appointments in Chemistry, Biological Sciences and Women’s Studies. These colleagues actively contribute to the Bren School by directing dissertations for our graduate students, participating in departmental research programs, and sometimes teaching ICS courses. ICS faculty also share their expertise and service with other UCI departments recognized through joint (non–salaried) appointments; 15 ICS faculty hold non–salaried joint appointments in Biomedical Engineering, Biological Chemistry, Developmental & Cell Biology, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Business.

Research Impact and Productivity

Our active and successful research faculty have established noteworthy affiliations with Organized Research Units – Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics (IGB), Institute for Software Research (ISR), Center for Embedded Computer Systems (CECS), Center for Research on Information Technology Organizations (CRITO), California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Cal–it2), Genetic Epidemiology Research Institute (GERI), and Institute for Mathematics in the Behavioral Sciences (IMBS) – and several research centers and laboratories – Ada Byron Research Center, Center for Organizational Research, Center for Ethnography, Center for Cyber–Security and Privacy, Center for Machine Learning and Data Mining, Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction. As statistics has become increasingly prevalent in all areas of scientific research, the Department of Statistics will continue to add faculty that would expand collaborations with other units on campus – in particular, with the health sciences (medicine, public health) and social sciences.

The Center for Statistical Consulting, which opened in 1996 under the direction of Dr. Robert Newcomb, was transferred to the Department of Statistics earlier this spring. Operation of the Center with scientific, organizational and administrative oversight within the context of the Statistics department will ensure appropriate expertise in new methods, will facilitate collaborations for consulting clients, while also planning for UCI’s statistical needs in the future. The Center will provide a home for other statisticians on campus (e.g. in Health Sciences, Social Sciences, etc.) within which their professional development can continue (seminars, etc.). The Center housed in Statistics will also provide a unique opportunity for Statistics graduate students by exposing them to a broad range of research projects early in their career.

ICS Faculty continue to be successful investigators, as reflected by the growth of extramural funding over the past four years, in spite of the increased competition for federal funding. Specifically, award amounts have almost doubled in three years, from $7M in 2002–03 growing to over $13M reported in 2005–06. Notable are the number of recent (since 2001) NSF Career awards recipients in the School (Przulj, Welling, Lopes, Mark, Dourish, van der Hoek). Most extramural funding is from NSF, NIH, Army, and the Dept. of Education, with the most significant increases in recent years from NSF. New areas of research funding include Air Force Research Lab and a variety of private contracts in addition to unrestricted research gifts.

Bren School faculty have achieved distinction through election as Fellows of IEEE and ACM (the most prestigious honors in our primary professional societies), “Distinguished Scientist” and “Distinguished Member” of ACM, and as Fellows of relevant scientific associations (AAAI, ASA, Royals Statistical Society, etc.). Appointments of three Chancellor’s Professors were made in 2006–07.   Many faculty have received recognition through Special Fellowships (Alexander von Humboldt Research Award, Fulbright Fellowship, Radcliffe Fellowship) and with best paper awards associated with a variety of the most competitive international and national conferences.

New Faculty

ICS plans to conduct broad faculty searches, however, with job advertisements worded so that the very best applicants across the disciplines are encouraged to apply. This allows us to take advantage of special opportunities and has been expressed as a best practice in recruiting a more diverse faculty.

Table 2 reflects current and projected faculty size in each department, reflecting approximately 20% growth in the ICS Faculty.

The projections in Table 2 include two variations. First, projections include anticipated appointments of nine additional Bren Chairs (ten senior positions were committed at the time of the Bren gift, only one of which has been filled thus far) outside of normal growth. Although the ICS Faculty and leadership agree that we will be opportunistic in our hiring of scholars to fill these chairs, for general planning purposes, it is expected that the nine additional Bren Chairs will be split as follows: four in Computer Science, three in Informatics, one in Statistics, and one school–wide. Of these, three are to be interdisciplinary term chairs with joint appointments with other units on campus for a five–year period; several opportunities for initial appointments to these chairs have been discussed, including with business (IT organizations), ACE (arts and technology), humanities (film and media and/or women’s studies), and natural sciences (chemistry or biology in support of bioinformatics). Second, as a newly created department with new graduate and undergraduate programs in emerging stages as well as significant new service to the campus, faculty growth in Statistics is slightly greater than common proportionate growth models might suggest; also envisioned is a formal role for the department in managing the Statistical Consulting Center, which requires a faculty member (to coordinate student training aspects of the consulting center) and a permanent (non–faculty) campus–funded director.

Diversity

As shown in Table 3, ICS is doing very well with respect to diversity relative to national averages for our peer institutions. Gender diversity (females) in ICS significantly exceeds the national average at all ranks, and is more than double the national average overall. Ethnic diversity (underrepresented minorities: African–American, Chicano/Latino, American Indian, and Asian/Pacific Islander) is higher than the national average at both the Associate Professor and Assistant Professor ranks, but falls slightly below the national average for full Professors; overall ICS ethnic diversity is quite a bit higher than the national average. National averages are taken from the most recent (2005–06) Taulbee Survey, conducted by the Computing Research Association¹ (CRA), which is the principal source of information on demographic data for Ph.D. granting computer science departments in the U.S. and Canada. Conducted each fall for the past 36 years², the Taulbee Survey has always had an excellent response rate (typically 80–90%) – thereby lending great credibility to the results – and providing excellent comparative data to our peer institutions.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

Graduate Education

The Bren School of ICS has had continuing growth in graduate enrollment as well as expanding programs over the years, as shown in Table 4. PhD students are currently admitted with multi–year support packages, which have resulted in higher yield of good students. The School has always found it easy to expand the doctoral program when desirable, provided funding is adequate. ICS cannot vie with other top–ranked graduate programs without offering competitive multi–year packages. One concern is our ability to grow the graduate program without sufficient TA resources and graduate block funding.

Table Footnotes:^{3   4   5   6   7}

New and Prospective Graduate Programs

Computer Science. The UC Office of the President approved a MS&PHD program in Computer Science in March 2007. This degree program replaces the current Computer Science concentration associated with the MS&PhD in ICS. For the near future, two specialized Master’s concentrations will continue to be offered under the ICS MS degree(Embedded Systems and Knowledge Discovery in Data). The Embedded Systems concentration will eventually be brought under the Computer Science degree. The MS in Knowledge Discovery in Data will be re–vamped into a truly interdisciplinary concentration capitalizing between the connection between our research strengths in machine learning within Computer Science and the Statistics Department. Further, the interdisciplinary concentration in IBAM will continue to be offered within the MS&PhD in ICS for the time being to support the BIT program.

Informatics. The Informatics Faculty created a Ubiquitous Computing track within the Concentration in Informatics, based upon now well–established courses. This track is delivered by a critical mass of Informatics faculty working in this area, to a growing number of graduate students interested in the topic. A proposal for a MS&PhD in Informatics is under development. This program would replace the current Informatics concentration in the MS&PhD in ICS. When that degree proposal is ready, it will likely be accompanied by a proposal to separate and elevate some tracks of the existing concentration in Informatics to concentrations under the ICS MS&PhD or possibly a separate degree (e.g., Software and Ubiquitous Computing). Such a revised degree in Informatics would more consistently meet national expectations with regard to scope, thus maximizing degree and career opportunities for students.

Statistics. The MS&PhD program in Statistics was approved by the UC Office of the President in June 2006 and now includes 6 PhD and 3 MS students with an additional cohort currently being recruited. The Department is interested in creating an option for students to study biostatistics and is working with the Program in Public Health to propose such a program through the Programs of Excellence and New Interdisciplinary Programs FTE call. A key issue for continued growth of the statistics graduate program is support for graduate students. It is common in Departments of Statistics for Teaching Assistantships to be a major source of support. Thus initiatives described below (undergraduate educational programs and service teaching) are crucial. One anticipated target audience for the MS program is PhD students in other fields (e.g., Economics, Cognitive Science, Biological Sciences). Students in these fields make extensive use of statistical methods and the more quantitative among them can more effectively develop methods with appropriate training. It will increase the marketability of these students as well.

ICS. The degree program changes proposed above, if approved, will supplement but not replace the ICS MS&PhD, which will remain in place to support interdisciplinary programs across the Bren School of ICS.

The School recently proposed a self–supporting, international degree program targeted to a group of highly qualified potential students in Italy. Specifically, the MS in ICS, concentration in Embedded Systems, will be offered in collaboration with the Institute of Cybernetics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR, which is similar to NSF) with the program delivered on–site in Naples, Italy during the academic year and at UCI during the summer. The UC Office of the President recently approved this program, and we expect to admit students in Summer 2007. Successful delivery of this program may lead to other self–supporting, international initiatives, such as an MS in ICS, concentration in Software Engineering and/or Informatics, at locations in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the UK.

Current and Planned Joint Graduate Programs

The dean and faculty of the Bren School of ICS are committed to joint graduate programs where appropriate to support the strategic objective of UCI to grow graduate enrollment with innovative programs that address 21st century needs.

We currently play an active role in the Arts Computation Engineering (ACE) program, a joint degree offered with the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. The Bren School hosts a concentration in ACE within the MS in ICS. It is expected that as ACE becomes an Interdisciplinary Program (IDP) that can hold FTE and sponsor degree programs, that this will transition to an independent MS/MFA in ACE. Discussion is also underway concerning for a combined MS/MFA in ACE (dual degree) and a future PhD in ACE.

ICS participates intently in the MS&PhD in Networked Systems, jointly offered with the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. There is a current proposal to offer a joint MS&PhD in Visual Computing, also with engineering. It may be prudent to instead propose a MS&PhD in Computer Science and Engineering (akin to the joint undergraduate degree) that would house these two programs as concentrations and support the development of future mutual efforts.

The Biomedical Informatics Training (BIT) program is jointly offered by ICS (heavily overseen by IGB) with the Schools of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Physical Sciences; students in this program receiving an ICS degree generally complete the IBAM Concentration. With the hiring of four bioinformatics faculty (some jointly appointed with relevant schools), it would make sense for this concentration to become a separate joint degree program.

A joint [three–year] degree program providing a MS in ICS and MBA to be jointly offered by the Bren School and the Merage School is under development.

Graduate Service Courses

There is great need for a set of courses that could provide instruction in the application of statistical methodology for graduate students in departments outside of statistics. The Department of Statistics has had specific conversations with faculty in other departments of the Bren School of ICS as well as in the School of Social Sciences, the School of Biological Sciences, the proposed Program in Public Policy, and the developing Program in Public Health. A two–quarter sequence (Statistics 201 and 202) has been approved and will be offered for the first time in the 2007–2008 academic year. These courses will also be at a level appropriate for upper–division mathematical sciences (and later statistics) majors.

Undergraduate Education

The Bren School of ICS has experienced a downturn in total undergraduate enrollments resulting from larger numbers of students graduating (caused by the sharp increase in enrollments in the late 1990s through 2001 in response to the dot.com boom) than new incoming students (caused by a drop in interest due to the dot.com bust and unfounded fear of many CS/IT jobs being outsourced to other countries). Both fluctuations are consistent with a national trend, indicating that the number of computer science majors has declined by 30% over the three years prior to 2004–05 (the most recent year for which national data is available)⁸. On the other hand, ICS’ undergraduate enrollments declined less than 25% over the same time period. The UCLA Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) survey⁹ indicates that interest in CS as a major has fallen in each of the past five years, after peaking in 1999 and 2000, dropping 70% over this period. In the fall of 2005, only 1.1% of incoming freshmen indicated CS as their probable major. On the other hand, 3.4% of UCI’s Fall 2005 freshman admits selected ICS as their desired major, indicating stronger interest in computing at UCI than current national interest.

ICS has experienced undergraduate enrollment variations in the past, also mirroring national trends. Despite variations, however, we have maintained an overall growth rate of 5.55% over the past decade. Efforts to improve our enrollment figures are especially challenging when we are fighting a national downturn rather than simple competition with another academic institution for an available population of students. Nevertheless, through local information sessions, outreach and recruitment efforts as well as participation in national organizations we are already having an impact on our own numbers, with new enrollments showing the decline in interest leveling off with an increase of 11% in ICS freshman for Fall 2006 over 2005. Further, we expect to see a similar or greater increase in our Fall 2007 numbers, compared with Fall 2006.

Our efforts to combat the national trend have been varied. These include the development of new majors – Informatics, Computer Science and Engineering, and Business Information Management to date and Bioinformatics and Statistics planned for the near future, new minors – Informatics and Optimization, pending final approval (with several others being planned), a new interdisciplinary concentration in Game Culture and Technology (in collaboration with Studio Art), a planned program in Teaching of Computer Science which will be launched (in collaboration with the Department of Education) in 2008–2009, and new courses for non–majors including a very popular First–Year Integrated Program “Computer Games as Art, Culture and Technology” which was launched in 2006–2007, and will be repeated.

In addition to longstanding K–14 outreach activities, in 2006–2007 we piloted two new ambitious efforts aiming to broaden our reach not only to individual students but also to educators. In March 2007, the Bren School hosted the first annual Southern California Computer Science Educators Conference (Success) with partners cosponsoring – the Computer Science Teachers Association, the UCI Department of Education, the Office of Admissions and Relations with Schools, and the Center for Educational Partnerships. The conference was designed to a) provide high school teachers with the ability to better communicate to high school students the breadth of information and computer sciences and the opportunities for research, technological innovation, and career success it represents; and b) begin a dialogue with high school teachers about ways to share effective teaching strategies and resources to improve computer science education for high school and college students. In 2006, the Bren School Faculty Forum was launched aiming to expose California community college computer science and math faculty, transfer center specialists, honor program directors and counselors to the Bren School’s vision, curriculum and learning opportunities for undergraduates. The Forums also facilitate discussion about ways to create effective partnerships on outreach, recruitment and course articulation issues. The first Faculty Forum was held May 2006 for southern California community colleges. A Faculty Forum for northern California community college representatives will be held May 2007 in San Ramon, California.

We have also augmented our yield efforts to students who are newly admitted to encourage their selection of UCI and ICS as their first choice. These include events such as High School/Transfer Scholar Days and Experience ICS/CSE Days, which provide admitted students and their families the opportunity to hear more about the Bren School’s strengths, observe classes and faculty research demonstrations, and meet faculty, counselors, current students and alumni. All admitted students received personalized emails, separately from the Dean and Associate Dean, citing School distinctions and providing contact information for those with remaining questions. The Informatics department also sent a U.S. letter and informational materials to their admitted students.

Although the School offers two undergraduate minors, it does not track minors, because students are not required to register their intent for the minor in advance of taking required coursework; it is simply awarded upon completion.

Prospective Undergraduate Programs

The Bren School is seriously pursuing several new educational opportunities. The Department of Statistics has begun planning for an undergraduate major in Statistics, which will be fully developed over the next five years with an anticipated submittal date of Fall 2010. This program will require development of a number of (at least six) upper division courses in statistical methodology to complement existing upper–division courses in statistical theory and lower–division introductory courses. It is envisioned that a core sequence of three methodology courses will be required of all majors and that these three courses would be offered every year. (The first two of these three courses have been developed as Statistics 201 and 2002 and will be offered for the first time in 2007–2008.) In addition, a number of elective courses will be developed with at least three of these offered each year (the electives would rotate with each being taught every two or three years). The undergraduate major will also require students to take mathematics and computer science courses to lay the foundations for much of the theory and modern application of statistics in practice.

An undergraduate degree in Bioinformatics (a pre–med and a non–premed version) is currently under development. This will draw upon our strong Bioinformatics faculty within Computer Science and will help to address the growing need for combined computational and biological expertise among biotech companies.

An undergraduate degree focused on entertainment technology, which would build upon the undergraduate concentration in Game Culture and Technology, is under discussion. This degree would expand electronic arts into augmented reality, interactive virtual worlds, immersive entertainment environments, computer–mediated visual story building, improvisational collaboration, etc. This would obviously be a cross–disciplinary program with potentially many collaborating departments.

Potential New Minors

A new minor in optimization (operations research) has been proposed for 2007–08. Other new minors under discussion include statistics (for 2008–09), information management (for 2008–09), web technologies (for 2008–09) and bioinformatics. These will certainly be proposed within the next year or two, and a variety of others will be proposed during the 10–year planning period – e.g., ubiquitous computing, health sciences informatics, information–based project management, and information foraging and forensics. New minors provide students with exposure to computing and information technology along a variety of themes that are broader than pure programming or computer science theory. There is also discussion of an extension of the Digital Arts minor to include relevant ICS classes.

Joint Undergraduate Degree Programs

The ICS faculty (primarily Informatics) and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts offer an undergraduate concentration in Game Culture and Technology available to students majoring in any of the ICS degrees or Studio Art (some discussion has begun regarding opening this up to other majors, specifically Film and Media Studies, Computer Engineering and possibly other relevant engineering degrees.) We expect this concentration to attract a number of new students to ICS.

The BS in Computer Science & Engineering is offered jointly with the Henry Samueli School of Engineering.

The BS in Business Information Management, offered jointly with the Paul Merage School of Business, was approved April 2007, and is expected to enroll the first small cohort of students (by changing majors) in Fall 2007. This new major, proposed as industry increasingly requires individuals not only with specific technical knowledge but also the capacity and understanding to effectively manage resources (human and financial) as well as projects, will prepare students to assume technical leadership and analytic roles at entry and mid–management level within an organization.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Encouraging undergraduate research through expanded UROP and SURP programs would greatly benefit ICS students. MIT has a very powerful undergraduate research component to its education; while students there are not officially required to be part of a research group, they are all clearly expected to do so. By treating undergraduate researchers on a par with graduate students with similar expectations has proven undergraduates to be capable of original and significant contributions to knowledge. Having already lived their lives as researchers as undergraduates, UCI’s students would be excellently prepared to continue their research careers at top graduate schools and research labs around the world. Bren Hall will provide potential flexibility to support temporary space for undergraduate researchers, an opportunity that has not been available in the past.

Undergraduate Service Courses

The School currently has one course sequence on the books for non–majors – ICS 10A,B,C – satisfying category V (Mathematics and Symbolic Systems); ICS 21,22,23 and Informatics 41,42+ICS 23 also satisfy category V. The School recently proposed a new course in Biological Computer Programming – ICS 20B – to serve as an introduction to computer programming for scientists. The school plans to reassess service course offerings in light of new breadth requirements, once they are finalized.

The Department of Statistics will increase its introductory statistics offerings to meet the large demand currently addressed by SocEcol 13, BioSci 7 and Math 7 (approximately 1100 students per year take one of these 3 courses). The Department has negotiated with Mathematics the transition of such teaching. Beginning in the current year (2006–2007), Statistics took full responsibility for teaching Stats/Math 67 which serves ICS undergraduates. Mathematics and Statistics will share instruction of Stats/Math 7 in 2007–2008 with Statistics share increasing after that point.

STAFF

The staff infrastructure development of the Bren School has been carefully managed due to the establishment of the School at the time of severe State and University fiscal uncertainty. While efforts had been made to protect our new School, current staff workload is challenged by the administration associated with new and developing degree programs, a growing faculty population, an aggressive student recruitment outreach program designed to attract as many students as possible during the national decline in undergraduate enrollment, expanding conference and seminar programs, increased extramural award activity, and an ambitious fundraising initiative in support of the School’s most critical needs. All of these vital activities require faculty commitment and staff support. While some progress is made each year, our most current and critical staff needs are as follows:

• 1.0 Student Affairs Officer
• 0.5 Major Gifts Coordinator
• 1.0 Communications Assistant

In addition to the above, staff increases proportionate to the School’s growth will be essential. Projected staff needs associated with growth are as follows:

• 2.0 Programmer/Analysts
• 2.0 Financial Assistants/Analysts
• 1.0 Student Affairs Assistant
• 1.0 Dean’s Office Analyst
• 1.0 External Relations Analyst
• 5.0 Departmental Assistants

The School continues to departmentalize and decentralize functions. In time, it is anticipated that centralized functional responsibilities (such as graduate admissions, pre– and post–award contract and grant management, etc.) will be decentralized. In addition to the above staff, current (centralized) staff positions will be reassigned to the Departments.

SUPPORT SERVICES AND FACILITIES

The opening of Bren Hall in early 2007 significantly eased ICS’ space pressures. Prior to Bren Hall, ICS space had been more or less level throughout our significant growth over the past six years¹⁰. We expect Bren Hall to accommodate growth projected for the next two–three years, but to adequately accommodate further growth additional teaching, research, meeting and administrative spaces will be required. Most specifically, with the growth of BioInformatics and the interdisciplinary nature of research associated with this program, standard bench research labs (wet labs, fume hoods, etc.) are required. Further, as fields such as Ubiquitous Computing, Embedded Systems, and ICS’ involvement in Arts Computation Engineering evolve, the need for specialized space such as fabrication laboratories and other support facilities is clear. In addition, typical services and support are expected to increase proportionally with growth.

A special need for ICS to remain competitive with peer institutions in supporting cutting–edge research and education is that the essential technological infrastructure keeps pace with the latest developments. These kinds of infrastructure – such as the campus Internet backbone, wireless networks, server farms and cluster/grid computers – form the new “supercomputers” of our generation and must receive appropriate funding and priority. New and innovative delivery of ubiquitous infrastructure may be of increasing use as a test bed on campus – e.g. wireless communications, sensor networks, etc. –for both research and education. To support this infrastructure, there will be a need for specially equipped physical environments (air conditioning and power) for computing equipment as well as increases in our annual operating budget to service and maintain this state–of–the–art technology infrastructure. This infrastructure is critical not only for advancing faculty and student research and providing the best education, but also for recruiting and retaining the best faculty and the brightest students. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education¹¹ highlighted that the number one consideration students make in choosing a college are academic facilities: 73.6% of the respondents to the a survey conducted by the consulting company Carter and Burgess named facilities related to their major as “extremely important” or “very important” in choosing a college.

The Bren School of ICS is developing support for podcasting distinguished lectures and educational content on the web for students and community members and becoming a significant player in “iTunes University”. ICS shares common goals with Apple Computer Inc. – to advance teaching, learning and research through innovation and to engage and empower students. These days, students expect a campus environment that accommodates their digital lifestyle, adapts to their individual learning needs, and encourages collaboration and teamwork. iTunes University introduces a way to simplify and meet all these needs.

An emerging need for the campus is improved accessibility for those with mobility challenges. In particular, with the construction of large parking garages, and the reduction of parking options adjacent to buildings – indeed some buildings (e.g., CS1) are completely land–locked – the campus must develop and offer alternative transportation that is available to faculty, staff, students and visitors on an on–call basis.

CAMPUS LIFE

As the faculty and staff grow in ICS and UCI generally, the need for additional, affordable housing in the local community (e.g., University Hills) will be critical. In fact, the shortage of housing already impacts current faculty (and staff) who are in need of “move–up” options as their families grow. In addition, with the goal of emphasizing graduate education at UCI, graduate housing is an issue with recruitment. Any increase in ICS’ and UCI’s graduate enrollment will require a corresponding increase in available and affordable graduate housing for the duration of our students’ graduate careers.

Envisioning an even greater role in the international research community, it will be essential for UCI to become an all–hours “24–7” campus, rather than a commuter campus; Cal–it2 and Informatics and some other groups on campus are beginning to have this sense of community. For this change to be fostered throughout the campus, systematic changes in the structures of campus life could be of great assistance. These changes should be directed at both graduate students and undergraduate researchers as well; undergraduate researchers can be a critical component of a vibrant and enthusiastic late–night research community. The following would contribute to the creation of such a “24–7” community: a) labs serving as a “home base” for students, b) affordable local housing, c) late night food and entertainment establishments in close proximity to campus, d) weekend events, e) parking policies that encourage staying later and in a secure environment, f) all–hours facility access, and g) ubiquitous keycards for easy access control.

PUBLIC ROLE

Faculty in the Bren School of ICS continue active involvement in the top–tier conferences in Computer Science, Informatics, and Statistics not only as authors of many of the best papers but also in various planning roles. Specifically all senior faculty serve in leading roles for conferences in their disciplines, and junior faculty serve on program committees as well. ICS faculty anticipate hosting many major international conferences in Southern California in the next few years including (not an exhaustive list): Ubiquitous Computing (2006), ACM Hotnets (2006), the International Conference on Systems Biology (2007), IEEE Virtual Reality Software and Technology (2007), WNAR (Western North American Region) International Biometric Society Meeting (2007), International Conference on Hardware– Software Codesign and System Synthesis (2008), Embedded Systems Week (2008), Software Engineering Education (2009). Several high–profile conferences have been held locally in the recent past as well. With the growth and development of the ICS Faculty, participation in international bodies will increase and will likely involve representation in state and national policy making.

With the opening of Bren Hall, plans are in progress to host several distinguished lecture series that will draw visibility both locally and internationally to the strengths of the Bren School. The School also hosts many user groups and public forums of interest to local industry, and plays an active role in organizations such as OCTANe@UCI, which is committed to holding timely and robust programs geared toward the IT and biomedical industries. ICS faculty continue to work with local firms through small projects, and as collaborators on large–scale research projects. We are becoming more proactive in nominating faculty for research awards that give our faculty visibility on campus and beyond.

The Bren School of ICS continues to increase our outreach to California schools. We support campus groups including WICS (Women in ICS) and anticipate improved support for student groups and outreach to underrepresented groups in computing.

UCI’s Center for Statistical Consulting, serves the statistical needs of UCI’s main campus, School of Medicine, and the surrounding community. The services provided include consulting (planning studies, assistance with grant proposals, data analysis and report preparation) and training/assistance with statistical software.

RESOURCES

The Bren School of ICS has lofty goals with respect to both extramural funding and private support. Expectations for state funding are generally that growth of ICS’ annual operating budget will be proportionate to growth in faculty and student enrollments. The basis for state funding above and beyond such growth has been addressed above, specifically for continued initial development of the Statistics Department and establishment of adequate staffing of the new School of ICS.

In recent years, ICS has significantly increased extramural funding. As the faculty grows and matures, these numbers will continue to increase despite increasing competition for limited resources from government agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

The Bren School’s priorities are to create awareness of the Bren School through expansion and enhancement of branding, marketing and communications efforts, while positioning the School as a collaborative research center within the university, with peer institutions, across the local, regional and national corporate business community landscape. We are in the process of building relationships with local and regional industry leaders with a focus on fundraising for 1) Bren Hall matching funds for completion of technology infrastructure, 2) expanding and accelerating both short–term and endowed scholarships and fellowships, 3) establishing endowed chairs (in addition to the ten Bren Chairs and the Ted and Janice Smith Dean’s Chair) specifically focusing on mid–career scholars, 4) obtaining financial support for special events or programs such as conferences, outreach, summer camps, etc., 5) securing administrative infrastructure endowments to allow the School to support ongoing operating needs, and 6) increasingly seek support for faculty research from the private sector to accommodate for decreasing levels of federal research funding.

ICS has several research areas that are already centers of excellence or emerging as such, and are “zones of interest” for focused fundraising efforts. These include not only the foci of our organized research units – e.g., bioinformatics (IGB), software and information systems design (ISR), networked embedded computer systems (NSC and CECS) and Cal–it2 – but also the foci of significant research centers – e.g., ubiquitous computing and interaction (LUCI), information technology for emergency response networks (RESCUE), cyber security and privacy (CCSP), and statistical machine learning.

Fundraising activities of the School’s External Relations office must be closely aligned with faculty and their research interests. ICS’ goal is to develop connections with industry and foundations that can lead to significant funding opportunities, with the ultimate objective of establishing funded centers of excellence focused around our research strengths. ICS ER staff will consistently comb through these opportunities and bring them to the attention of relevant faculty.

The School’s External Relations and Communications units work closely with the Dean in collaboration with University Advancement and Central Communications as well as with Department Chairs and ICS Faculty. The External Relations unit is comprised of a Director of Development (funded by Advancement), in addition to two professional staff (Assoc. and Asst. Directors) and an Administrative Assistant supported by the School. The Communications unit includes a professional communications specialist who serves as the Director of Communications and a programmer analyst who develops and maintains the School’s web. The Directors of Development and Communications report to the Dean, with the Director of Development having a dual reporting relationship to Advancement. To effectively sustain the above campaign, additional staff is required, as indicated in STAFF above.

1. List in priority order the proposed faculty recruitments discussed in your written submission.
2. Leave blank the column for Salary Control #; this column is for central office use.

Indicate status of currently authorized positions; add rows as needed.

Indicate anticipated near–term separations.

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Last Updated: June 27, 2007