Message from the Head
Dr. Ahmed Sameh

I am pleased to update you on important developments that took place in our department during last year. Perhaps the most significant news item is the growth in enrollment of our undergraduate majors to approximately 930 in the 1998-99 academic year; an increase of more than 200% compared to the 1994-95 enrollment. Great opportunities usually accompany great challenges. Thus, while this increase in enrollment has stressed our teaching capacity, it has caused several important initiatives to be launched. First, a plan for more faculty positions, primarily in systems and software, has been drafted together with corresponding increases in the number of graduate teaching assistants, computing facilities staff, and clerical support staff. Second, the University has provided funds for increasing the number of instructional laboratories, operated by the department, and funds for upgrading their equipment. Equipment donations from Intel for several of these instructional laboratories are gratefully acknowledged. Third, the University has placed a new building for Computer Science on the Capital Development plan.

We are very pleased to announce that Sunil Prabhakar joined our faculty as an Assistant Professor effective the Fall semester of the 1998-99 academic year. Professor Prabhakar research interests include databases, digital libraries, and multimedia. On the other hand, two colleagues left the department at the end of the 1997-98 academic year. Professor Robert Lynch, one of the department's prominent numerical analysts, has retired after 30 years of contributions to the research, teaching and service mission of our University. Also, Professor Chandrajit Bajaj decided to stay at the University of Texas (Austin) after the expiration of his leave of absence. Both colleagues will be sorely missed.

Our faculty members continue to be successful in securing more research funds from federal agencies and industry. In particular, I would like to mention that our junior faculty members are continuing this tradition; five of our junior faculty members: Ananth Grama, Zhyiuan Li, Jens Palsberg, Kihong Park, and David Yau, have active NSF - CAREER awards. I am also happy to report that Ananth Grama was named the School of Science Outstanding Teacher of the year, and Jens Palsberg was honored as one of the first few University Faculty Scholars to be named by Purdue.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that our departmental laboratory on Information Security (COAST), has become a University-wide center (CERIAS) under the leadership of Professor Eugene Spafford and his colleagues in our department. In addition to its generous industrial research funding, CERIAS received an endowment of $ 4.9 million over the next three years. We expect that this Center will have a significant impact on the national research activities on Information Security. Recently, the National Security Agency designated Purdue as a Center of Excellence in the education of Information Security.