Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
Encyclopedia
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
(UCI), and the only dedicated school of 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...
in the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
system. Consisting of over a thousand students and members, the school maintains three buildings in the South-East artery of UCI's undergraduate campus, and maintains student body and research affiliations throughout UCI.
ICS consists of three departments: Computer Science, Informatics
Informatics (academic field)
Informatics is the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems. Informatics studies the structure, algorithms, behavior, and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process, access and communicate information...
, and Statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
. The combined groupings focus the school around the fields of computing
Computing
Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
and processing of information. The departments confer seven undergraduate, eleven masters, and seven doctoral degrees in total, with some degree programs cooperating with affiliated schools.
History
Beginning in 1968, three years after UCI's founding, the Department of Information and Computer Science was created as an independent department, not belonging to any school. In 2002, the 35 year old department was elevated to the status of a school, and its faculty were partitioned into two departments, the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Informatics. The Department of Statistics, founded earlier in 2002, was included as a third department in the newly created school.During 2004, the school received a $20 million anonymous donation. The donation was later revealed to be from local realtor, Donald Bren
Donald Bren
Donald Bren is an American businessman who is Chairman of the Irvine Company, a US Based real estate developer, which he wholly owns.-Early Life and Education:...
. The school was renamed in his honor. The donation is primarily being used to seek out and seed prestigious researchers.
Programs and Degrees
The school's independent status allows for unique majors and fields that are not bound by the rigorous requirements traditionally set forth by other schools, such as Engineering. The school of ICS is one of less than fifty independent computer science schools in the United States, and the only one in the University of California system.There were 908 undergraduate and 272 graduate students , a drop from previous years. The Dean of ICS, Debra J. Richardson, speculates the drop is from fears of outsourcing
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
and the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
burst, both reputed factors in stagnating technology jobs. However, the percentage of female enrollment is 16.8%, an increase from previous years. In Fall 2009, there were 802 undergraduate and 347 graduate students.
Undergraduate
The school possesses 6 undergraduate majors, ranging from lower level hardware to high level social computing, each providing a bachelor of scienceBachelor 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...
degree (notably, Computer Engineering is not part of ICS, and resides in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering is the academic unit of the University of California, Irvine that oversees academic research and teaching in various disciplines of the field of engineering...
). Out of the 6 undergraduate majors in the Donald Bren School, 3 are unique interdisciplinary studies shared between the Paul Merage School of Business, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, and the School of Biological Sciences.
Twice as many undergraduates self-identified as Asian compared to Caucasian in the 2009 - 2010 academic year.
Non-Interdisciplinary Majors
The school's primary major is Information and Computer Science, focused on computer science theory and software engineering. In contrast to engineering majors, additional natural sciences (such as physics) are not required to complete the major. Two upper division theoretical mathematics courses are required, along with basic calculus, linear algebra, statistics, and discrete mathematics. The program allows students more freedom to pursue a selected field in computer science. Though not required for a degree, the school certifies specializations within the major:- Artificial Intelligence
- Computer Systems
- Implementation and Analysis of Algorithms
- Information Systems
- Networks and Distributed Systems
- Software Systems
The second most popular major within the school is Computer Science, similar in composition to ICS. Though more limiting in electives, the major was formed around the recommended courses set by ACM
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
and IEEE
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...
, and features a more classical computer science curriculum.
The major of Informatics, unique in the UC system, focuses on software engineering, social computing, and management. The higher level of social abstraction prepares students in such fields as software analysis, management, design, and interfaces.
Computer Science and Engineering
Computer Science and Engineering requires more engineering preparation and courses than Information and Computer Science, including physics, electrical engineering, and multivariate calculus. Due to the nature of the program, it is hosted jointly by The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science.
Business Information Management
The undergraduate major of Business Information Management (BIM) is administered by the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences is a collaborative, interdisciplinary degree program between the Bren School and The Paul Merage School of Business.
It seeks to educate students to understand and then apply the theories and concepts of a broad, integrated curriculum covering computing, informatics, business fundamentals and analytical decision-making. Graduates of the program will:
- Learn the fundamentals of information and computer science, including the rudiments of software design and construction with an emphasis on data management
- Grasp the business fundamentals, covering all the functional areas in the business school, provide a background and context in which information and its analysis will be applied.
The curriculum is presented across three general academic areas:
- Computing (computer science, informatics and software)
- Business Foundations (accounting, finance, marketing, strategy and operations)
- Analytical Methods (mathematics, statistics, economics, management science and decision analysis)
Biomedical Computing
The undergraduate major of Biomedical Computing (BMC) is the intersection of computer science and information technology with biology and medicine. Students will receive a firm quantitative grounding in mathematics, statistics, and computation; become familiar with the basic foundations of physics, chemistry, and biology; master a rigorous and demanding Biomedical Computing year-long sequence; study theory, algorithms, data mining, and machine learning; and carry out a year-long immersive capstone Senior Project.
The immense growth and impact of biomedical information has led to a critical need for people who can understand the languages, tools, and techniques of both life sciences and computational sciences. The Biomedical Computing program aims to create a new generation of professionals with these complementary cross-disciplinary skills.
Graduate of a major in Biomedical Computing will:
- provide students with a solid foundation in computer science, quantitative methods, and biomedical computing;
- introduce students to biomedical computing problems and the corresponding computer science perspective;
- teach students the fundamental principles, methods, and technologies for addressing these problems; and
- provide students with extensive practice in biomedical computing.
In the lower-division program, students acquire a firm quantitative grounding in mathematics, statistics, and computation; become familiar with the basic foundations of physics and chemistry; and learn the fundamentals of molecular biology from a computational perspective. In the upper-division program, students take a year-long Biomedical Computing sequence; study theory, algorithms, data mining, and machine learning; and take several quantitative and biological electives.
The year-long immersive capstone Senior Project unifies theory and practice as applied to an intensive and meaningful real-world biomedical computing problem. By the end of the four-year degree program students will have mastered the theory, context, application, and practice of Biomedical Computing.
Graduate
ICS provides 11 master's level and 7 doctorate level graduate programs. Since computing is a part of many other fields (which use or interact with computing technology), ICS collaborates with other schools in many of its programs.The Department of Computer Science offers a general major to those who have no specialized field, and is awarded as Information and Computer Science (M.S.). Computer Science (M.S.,Ph.D.) allows for a wide range of fields, similar to the general degree; however, doctoral degrees require a particular research interest within the field, unlike the general degree. Embedded Systems (M.S.) more narrowly focuses students on the implementation of specialized computer systems. Knowledge Discovery and Data (M.S.) applies to informatics fields like information processing
Information processing
Information processing is the change of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process which describes everything which happens in the universe, from the falling of a rock to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system...
and to computer science fields such as artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
.
The Department of Informatics offers its own general degree Informatics Track in General Informatics (M.S.,Ph.D.), however doctoral candidates must have a specific research interest.
Informatics Track in Interactive and Collaborative Technology (M.S.,Ph.D.) narrows its general degree to the field of human–computer interaction
Human–computer interaction
Human–computer Interaction is the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study...
, with end parties as wholly human or man and machine. Software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
is researched under the Informatics Track in Software (M.S.,Ph.D.) degree, as software development processes are directly related to human interaction and information systems.
Three multi-discipline fields exist, spread across more than one school. Networked Systems (M.S.,Ph.D.) involves both the School of Engineering and the school of ICS. The research area covers high and low levels of telecommunications and computer networks. Arts Computation Engineering (M.S.), as its name suggests, covers both the School of Engineering and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts
Claire Trevor School of the Arts
The Claire Trevor School of the Arts is a fine arts school at the University of California, Irvine in Irvine, CA. The four departments housed in the school consist of dance, drama, music, and studio art. The school has both an undergraduate program as well as a masters program. It was named in...
in addition to ICS. The field relies heavily on high level informatics principles, applying science to the arts. Informatics in Biology & Medicine (M.S.,Ph.D.), requires classes within the wide fields of Biology. Research may range from microscopic systems, such as proteins, or macro-level systems, such as populations.
Though the Department of Statistics currently has no undergraduate degrees, it offers one graduate program: Statistics (M.S.,Ph.D.). The graduate program may help model many different problems, and is highly applicable to researchers in other fields such as economics and biology.
Faculty, Staff, and Alumni
The current Dean of the Bren School is Hal S. Stern. Stern is a professor of statisticsStatistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
and, as dean, he holds the Ted and Janice Smith Family Foundation endowed chair in ICS.
Noteworthy alumni have graduated from the school, including: Roy Fielding
Roy Fielding
Roy Thomas Fielding is an American computer scientist, one of the principal authors of the HTTP specification, an authority on computer network architecture and co-founder of the Apache HTTP Server project....
, co-creator of Hypertext Transfer Protocol
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web....
and the Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache , is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server software to surpass the 100 million website milestone...
; Patrick Hanratty, CAD pioneer; Paul Mockapetris
Paul Mockapetris
Dr. Paul V. Mockapetris is the inventor of the Domain Name System.In 1983, he proposed a Domain Name System architecture in RFCs 882 and 883 while at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California....
, creator of Domain Name System
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
and the first Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today...
server; Steven Joe, CEO of D-Link
D-Link
D-Link Corporation was founded in June 1986 in Taipei as Datex Systems Inc. It began as a network adapter vendor and has gone on to become a designer, developer, and manufacturer of networking solutions for both the consumer and business markets.In 2007, it was the leading networking company in...
North America.
Buildings and Computer Labs
The school currently has three associated buildings operational, providing over 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) of space. Labs are located in each building, with over 500 administered computers total. All buildings are positioned adjacent to the School of Engineering at the South-East side of UCI's undergraduate campus.
The building also has the largest computer lab, ICS364, containing 117 Windows, 12 Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, and 12 Sun Solaris Java boxes. The lab is also located next to the air conditioned server room, visible to each other through a large window.
Information and Computer Science 2 (ICS2), is a narrow computing facility surrounding the South-East side of the ICS tower. ICS2 houses graduate offices in 9731 square feet (904 m²) of space. It is also home to the Human Computer Interaction lab.
Bren Hall is the latest addition to the school, completed in early 2007. It consists of 87000 square feet (8,082.6 m²), making it the largest building in the ICS family. It houses offices for many ICS faculty and staff, in addition to the 4 lecture halls and 10 classrooms.
Two former buildings, the Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
-designed ICS Engineering Research Facility (IERF, a 9954 square feet (925 m²) laboratory facility, with an added instruction hall and classroom) and Computer Science/Engineering (CS/E, a 6681 square feet (621 m²) office and facility building near Bren Hall and IERF) were demolished in January 2007.
Research organizations
ICS helped found the Ada Byron Research Center (ABRC), which helps minorities in the field of Computer Science. ABRC is named in honor of the 19th century female mathematician Ada LovelaceAda Lovelace
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace , born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine...
, a symbol for the underrepresented numbers of females studying computer science. ABRC aims at not only increases minority researchers, but closing the digital divide
Digital divide
The Digital Divide refers to inequalities between individuals, households, business, and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels in access to information and communication technologies and Internet connectivity and in the knowledge and skills needed to effectively use the information...
, the metaphorical gap between the technologically rich and poor. The current director is the Dean Richardson of ICS.
The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2
Calit2
The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology is an academic research institution jointly run by the University of California, San Diego and University of California, Irvine ....
), is a multidisciplinary research organization within the University of California. UC Irvine and UC San Diego currently house the two Calit2 buildings. Calit2 attempts to bring theory to practice through its "top-down" "innovation" programs. Space at Irvine's Calit2 building is provided to any collaborative project that fits within Calit2's goals.
LUCI, the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction, serves as a focal point for research that follows the vision of ubiquitous computing. LUCI researchers are interested in the challenges of designing, using, and understanding the elements of a ubiquitous computing world. Some of these different facets include computing in the face of mobile computers and mobile users, understanding and exploring new patterns of socio-technical behavior, and the design and construction of technology which supports ubiquitous computing.
Student organizations
The ICS Student Council is the official student government of the school. The student council also acts as an umbrella organization for the other ICS organizations. It hosts regular social events, professional development events, networking events, and project teams. It coordinates the largest ICS event of the year, ICS Day, and also is involved in Corporate Outreach for the school.The ICS House is a 2 story on-campus house located within UCI's Arroyo Vista housing community. ICS House accepts a limited number (approx. 16) of students from the school of ICS or outstanding applicants, based upon an essay, community participation, and academic interest. Students participate in community events with the house, while providing a comfortable environment for those interested in technology.
UC Irvine ACM (ACM) is UCI's student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
. ACM is an academic, vocational, and social club. Lectures, technology showcases, and corporate fairs are held regularly. ACM's premier event is the ACM Career Expo, which hosts a wide range of corporate booths, allowing students to network, meet prospective companies, and pass along resumes. ACM also regularly hosts social events such as barbecues and LAN parties
LAN party
A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people with computers, between which they establish a local area network , primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. The size of these networks may vary from the very small to very large installations...
at the ICS House.
Women in Computer Science (WICS) is a student run organization to help and enourage women in the fields related to computer science. The club allows a supportive environment and social networking to promote success. ICS currently employs more full-time female faculty than the national average as the female undergraduate population is continuing to grow.
Other student organizations include the Informatics Student Organization and Video Game Developers Club.