Department of Computer Science, University of Northern Iowa

Introduction

Founded in 1876, the University of Northern Iowa is a comprehensive public university recognized for the quality of its programs and student experience. Approximately 14,000 students, including 1,600 graduate students study in UNI's six colleges that offer more than 120 different majors. The UNI home page offers a more complete profile of the university, including its history and a virtual tour of the campus.

Computer Science at UNI began as an emphasis on the mathematics major in the late 1970s. By 1981, the mathematics department was offering majors in Computer Science and Computer Information Systems. It later added an M.A. program in computer science education. The Department of Computer Science became a separate department in the fall of 1992, and added its M.S. program in computer science four years later. The department currently has nine full-time faculty and two part-time instructors serving roughly 125 undergraduate majors and 20 graduate students.

The Department of Computer Science currently offers five undergraduate majors, including interdisciplinary programs in bioinformatics and networking and system administration, two minors, one certificate program, and two graduate majors. Students are able to prepare for long-term careers in computing and computing-related disciplines, working closely with faculty who are dedicated to the success of their students. Graduates are highly sought after by major regional employers such as Rockwell Collins, State Farm, and Principal and by smaller firms such as DISTek Integration and T8Design. An increasing number of students are choosing to go on for master's and doctoral programs at schools such as the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota, Indiana University, Florida State University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In the spring of 2006, the Department of Computer Science moved to the new Innovative Teaching and Technology Center, in the renovated historic East Gym. The ITTC blends historic architecture with modern design and gives the department an opportunity to expand its laboratory facilities for faculty and student use. It also affords picturesque views of the UNI campus to the west and south.

FACULTY PROFILE

With distributed computing, the devil is in the details. That's because a programmer is dealing with all sorts of different hardware and networks. Meshing all of these elements presents a significant challenge that Paul Gray, associate professor of computer science, is leading the charge to solve... [more]

More Profiles

PROJECTS/GROUPS

More Projects