A team of experts will begin an external review of the computer science department today, looking especially at the department's current research, the quality of the graduate program and the potential for future growth.
Since the last formal review in 1998, the department has hired several accomplished junior faculty members and has steadily increased its reputation.
"We are climbing the rankings," said Alan Biermann, professor and department chair. "Some of our faculty are becoming very famous in the field."
Yet despite the department's jump from unranked in 1999 to 20th in the 2003 U.S. News & World Report ranking of computer science doctoral programs, it has struggled to attract top graduate students and faculty members.
Two faculty searches in the past two years have failed to yield a new hire, and former chair Jeffrey Vitter left Duke last year for Purdue University. In the past 10 years, computer science has decreased in size from 18 full-time, research positions to 17-a contraction that worries many professors in the department.
"To maintain our position, we're going to need additional resources in terms of size and space," said Amin Vahdat, an assistant professor.
Many expected the department to conduct two searches this year--one as a third try at filling the new position authorized two years ago and an additional search to replace Vitter--but only one search was authorized.
Berndt Mueller, dean of natural sciences, said the expectation of two positions was overly optimistic considering the financial constraints Arts and Sciences is currently facing. "I think that was just unrealistic from a budget standpoint," he said.
With limited resources and only one position to offer, the department has conducted a search for faculty in algorithms as well as in systems and architecture--two different concentrations whose searches are generally kept separate. As of early March, the search was behind schedule and no offers had been extended.
Faculty attribute some of the hiring difficulty to the lack of a growth plan for computer science. Many of Duke's competitors--including Purdue and the University of California at San Diego, which are tied with Duke in the rankings--have committed to increase their departments by as many as 10 faculty members and are planning new buildings for computer science.
"We can't hire candidates of the caliber that we're looking for unless the administration of the University has a coherent plan about the future of the department," said Jeffrey Chase, associate professor and director of graduate studies. "People want to come to replace departing faculty where there is growth."
Professors have expected the department to expand, given the strength of the research and computer science's contributions to the rest of University. This expectation was strengthened by an informal review of the department conducted last year.
Three professors from top national computer science departments came to Duke to evaluate the department last spring, an unusual occurrence a year before a formal review is planned. Each reviewer submitted an individual report to administrators identifying strengths and weaknesses of the department.
All three praised the recent hires and the strength of the research, and recommended substantial faculty growth over the next several years.
"The young faculty is strong, morale is high and there is high funding in some real areas of research strengths," said Richard Karp, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and one of the reviewers. He added that the department is "undervalued by the national community" and "undersized" in several areas of concentration.
Despite a recent jump in ratings, the department is ranked lower than its quality dictates, reviewers said.
Karp recommended adding six faculty members over the next three years. The other two reviewers suggested similar increases, Biermann said.
Since the report, however, the administration has not developed any plan for computer science--a lack of action that Chase said has "confused" the faculty.
William Chafe, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, said administrators are waiting for recommendations from the formal external review to take any action.
Reviewers said last year's review was primarily to reassure administrators of the department's stability after Vitter's departure and Biermann's assumption of the chair.
"We felt that we would benefit from experts in the area to see whether we needed to make immediate decisions," said Chafe, adding the report did not indicate such a need.
There were also questions about interaction between computer science and the electrical and computer engineering department in the Pratt School of Engineering.
The informal review did suggest a need to tie together the different groups within computer science--something today's reviewers will look at more closely.
"Right now, everyone gets along but the activity is somewhat segmented by groups," said Karp, who suggested adding "something that would sort of weld the department together."
Today's formal review will also look at ways to lure higher quality graduate students to the University. As graduate students often pick their schools based on rankings, the problem is closely tied to the undervaluation of the department. "The quality of graduate students is directly determined by the rankings," Vahdat said, "and to move up in the rankings you need more faculty."
In the past year, leaders have also constructed a departmental strategic plan that hopes for future growth.
"The department should aspire to reach the top 10 in the next five to 10 years," said Pankaj Agarwal, the professor who led the committee that created the plan. Such a jump would likely require a nearly 30 percent increase in the size of the faculty. "Since the department has not grown in the last 10 years, this is reasonable."
However, little, if any, growth is slated for Arts and Science in the next few years; therefore, if computer science is to grow, other departments will need to shrink.
"We are really on the cusp of a real success," Chase said, "and we hope that the University and the department will be able to follow through on that success."
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