A group of faculty and staff will evaluate the possibility of creating a new computer science department that would consolidate programs at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences.
In a statement to WSN, Tandon Dean Juan de Pablo said the two schools may collaborate to create a department that would merge the hands-on applications from Tandon’s Computer Science Engineering Bachelor of Science degree with the theoretical foundation of CAS’s Computer Science Bachelor of Arts degree offered as part of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. De Pablo added that the additional program would not affect current students.
De Pablo said scaling NYU’s emphasis on computer science would be consistent with ongoing work at peer universities, which are also investing in technology and artificial intelligence programs. He said that as the computer science field was quickly expanding, NYU sought to reevaluate the efficacy of its course and degree offerings.
“It is evolving rapidly, and there are potential opportunities that could include offering new courses, new degrees and new research opportunities,” de Pablo told WSN. “A combined department that spans everything from applications to fundamentals might be able to do that more effectively.”
Some computer science students have switched schools because of discrepancies between the programs’ curriculums. Ike Wang, a junior studying computer science and math at CAS, transferred from Tandon in his third semester at NYU.
“After the first year, it was just not for me — because engineering is more like applied math,” Wang said in an interview with WSN. “I like pure math, that’s the reason why I transferred.”
Several other Tandon students also said the campus’s Brooklyn location made its version of the major much more isolating. Jefferson Le, a junior studying computer science engineering at Tandon, said the combination of the two programs would be beneficial for student life and make it easier to access classes across schools.
“My friends at other schools told me a lot of professors at Courant are really good, so sometimes it feels like I’m missing those classes,” Le said. “Sometimes it feels like I’m wasting time at a worse campus, where the classes are harder and less useful.”
Tandon’s program is more engineering-focused, with nearly twice as many computer science and math requirements as its CAS counterpart. It also has two additional engineering requirements, whereas CAS computer science majors are required to complete the CAS Core Curriculum.
De Pablo emphasized that a potential merger would not have any effect on the university’s two current offerings, and that students would still take classes at both schools.
“We will continue to offer both our computer science engineering engineering degree and our computer science degree,” de Pablo said. “The two degrees are different, and it is important to offer different choices for our students.”
NYU has recently expanded its science and technology programming, this year ranking No. 1 in New York for research spending by the National Science Foundation. It also recently purchased new office space specifically for science and tech, announced the development of a new center for cybersecurity and pledged to invest $1 billion into expanding engineering facilities.
Contact Adi Rajpurohit at [email protected].
