The Department of Computer Science was founded by people who
had a vision. This vision was how computer science would fit
into the unique spirit of Yale University, an institution oriented
to an unusual degree around undergraduate education and close
interdepartmental collaboration. The Department has always had
close ties to mathematics and engineering, but has increasingly
experienced collaborations with other disciplines important
to Yale, including psychology, linguistics, economics, business,
statistics, music, medicine, physics and more. It is through
these collaborations that the importance of computer science
in a broader sense is best appreciated.
ACM's Special Interest
Group on Algorithms and Computing Theory (SIGACT)
honors Daniel Spielman
and Shang-Hua with 2008 Gödel Prize for helping
computers solve practical problems. Details.
Vladimir Rokhlin has
been elected to the National
Academy of Engineering (NAE). Election to the NAE is among the
highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy
membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions
to engineering research, practice, or education.
On February 7, 2008 the Yale College Faculty approved a new major
on
“Computing
and the Arts.” The new major is designed for
students interested in
integrating work in computing and one of the arts disciplines:
Art, History
of Art, Music or Theater Studies.
Joan Feigenbaum
has been added to the Science Councilfor the Global
Environment for Network Innovations (GENI), along with 3 others.
The new members will join 15 current members of the council in providing
scientific guidance for the GENI project -- a proposed experimental
facility to allow research on a wide variety of problems in communications,
networking, and distributed systems.