State of the Department

1. State of the Department • Who we are • Enrollment and degree production • External funding • Objectives and outcomes • Changes and challenges • Plans

2. Overview of CS People • Faculty:16 full-time, 4 part-time • Staff: 4 full-time, 4 part-time • 18 teaching assistants • 20 research assistants • 2 grant-supported staff • 300 undergraduate students • 85 graduate students

3. Faculty 2003-2004 • 11 tenure-track faculty, 3 multi-year instructors • 3 part-time instructors, 1 full-time visitor 2004-2005 • 2 new tenure-track faculty to be hired

4. Department Values • Excellence in research and education • Environment of collegiality • Faculty collaboration • Academic involvement with students outside classroom

5. Student Profile (1) • Moved from Juarez to El Paso in 1997 when family became permanent residents. Both parents finished only elementary school. • Always thought she would go to college. Parents took her to visit a college when she was in nursery school. Parents encouraged her and her sister to stay in school because of their own experiences. • Started at Technologico de Juarez, spent 1.5 years there. Then two semesters at EPCC, basically to take English. Then transferred to UTEP, which was the only school she considered.

6. Student Profile (2) • Grew up in El Paso, attended Montwood HS. Both parents graduated from HS in El Paso; attended but did not complete college. Mom works for State of Texas as a public controller; dad works for UTEP HR as benefits rep. • Always intended to go to college. • Also considered UT-Austin, Texas Tech, Rice, Stanford and ASU. Attended UTEP because of family—is real close to his family and decided to stay. Also felt that UTEP was right up there with the other schools.

7. Student Comments • Felt a warmth and openness from faculty unlike that at any other university she's attended • Department as whole is very welcoming and makes students feel like family. It's not like this in other departments.

8. CS Enrollment Degree94-9501-02 03-04 B.S. 129 270 300 M.S. 44 102 70 Ph.D. 3 6 15 Enrollment

9. CS Graduates Degree94-9500-01 03-04 (est.) B.S. 25 33 45 M.S. 8 10 15 Ph.D. 0 2 1 Degrees

10. NSF Infrastructure Awards • MII 1 (1990-1995): Research capability • 312 publications in 1998-1999 • MII 2 (1995-2000): Undergrad retention • Affinity-group model • Most funding now external • MII 3 (2000-2005): Graduate program • Support competent but not confident students

12. CQI Assessment Process • Collection of data • Analysis • Decision-making • Implementation • Reflection

13. Assessment Data • Graduating senior survey (annual) • Alumni survey (triennial) • Senior exit interviews (each semester) • Departmental advisory board (annual) • Personnel reviews (annual) • Teaching evaluations

14. Undergraduate Objective 1a UTEP CS graduates will be able to apply techniques, methodologies, tools and skills to build high-quality computing systems that function effectively and reliably in the emerging information infrastructure.

15. Undergraduate Objective 1b UTEP CS graduates will be able to work in teams, to apply theoretical methods, to apply principles of software engineering, and to model real-world processes and objects.

16. Undergraduate Objective 1c UTEP CS graduates will be able to serve as productive and ethical members of society and the profession.

17. Undergraduate Objective 1d UTEP CS graduates will have the motivation and the ability to adapt to evolving methodologies of computing.

18. Undergraduate Objective 1e UTEP CS graduates will understand graduate study as a professional path, and significant numbers of our graduates will attend graduate school.

19. Outcomes • Undergraduate outcomes, graduate outcomes, and teaching evaluation trends redacted from this version of the presentation

20. Changes 2000-2003 • Doubled number of FTE faculty and number of support staff • Fostered joint vision for the department • Developed more focused research strategy • ABET /CAC reaccreditation • Put CQI process in place • Significantly revised undergrad and grad curricula • Initiated separate Ph.D. in CS

21. Changes 2000-2003 • Obtained extra funds from the administration for remodeling, equipment and M&O • Solved salary compression and inversion problems • Reduced teaching to two days/week for almost everyone • With rare exceptions, have enabled faculty to choose which courses they teach

22. Changes 2000-2004 • Eliminated undergrad advising duties for tenure-track faculty • Significantly sped up faculty reimbursements • Created individual accounts for research overhead return funds

23. Challenges • To increase and support research excellence • To deal with anticipated growth, particularly in number of students • Maintain high academic standards • Maintain low student-teacher ratio • Find more space • To recruit students • Recruit more undergraduate students into computer science • Recruit Ph.D. students

24. Challenges • To support and motivate positive student attitudes • Create culture of accomplishment and professionalism • Create “can-do” culture among students and faculty (e.g., programming at all hours of the night) • To increase and support external relations • Make relationships with other institutions less sporadic and more systematic • Make CS Department more valuable to UTEP as a whole

25. Challenges • To increase and support faculty effectiveness • Leverage faculty time in the best ways (e.g., TAs) • Maintain simultaneous excellence in both teaching and research • To have better-prepared incoming students • Preparation of K-12 for CS study is currently inadequate • Students not prepared with adequate study skills • Non-CS education at UTEP may not meet our department’s standards • To improve student persistence

26. Plans • Focus on strategic research/educational areas • Provide value for UTEP and region • Increase external research funding • Grow Ph.D. program • Grow faculty • Build new building