History

“At Carnegie, everything was always very simple. We never really came across groups that were hostile to the computer or reluctant to apply it. Everybody at Carnegie accepted the value of a computer in their work... I’ve taken it for granted that computing is central and valuable and that its impact is going to continue to grow. I’ve taken that for granted. I haven’t had to sell anybody that idea ... Computing at Carnegie Mellon evolved the way it should everywhere but doesn’t. There was a confluence of minds, tools and problems, an absence of administrative blindness, and an appreciation of potential and consequences that spread far...”

—Alan Perlis, First Department Head

To fully appreciate the scope and organization of computer science at Carnegie Mellon today, it is necessary to understand its history and evolution. The quote above conveys a sense of potential and an ability to respond to the new with insight and willingness that have always characterized computer science at Carnegie Mellon. These characteristics have been a critical and enduring element in both the formation of the School of Computer Science and our approach to an amazingly expansive and exciting field of study. Throughout our history, we have continued to expand, as we open new areas of research and teaching.

In the 1950s, the emergence of the “electronic computer” captured the minds of researchers across the disciplines on campus. While the field was not well defined or clearly delineated in impact, faculty in the Graduate School of Industrial Administration (GSIA), staff from the newly formed Computation Center, and key administrators fully recognized the unique educational and research potential inherent in these machines and wisely chose to invest in and pursue a direction bold in its mission and expansive in intention. They were going to lay the foundation for a discipline of computer science, as distinct and intricate as the other traditional academic disciplines.

Led by a group of visionary enthusiasts, including Allen Newell, Herbert Simon, and Alan Perlis, the Department of Computer Science was formed in July 1965, with Professor Alan Perlis as its head. As one of the first such departments in the nation, its creation was what now seems an inevitable step. The intent was simple: To cultivate a course of study leading to the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, a program that would exploit the new technology and assist in firmly establishing a discipline of computer science. The educational program, formally accepted in October 1965, drew its first graduate students from existing programs, notably the Systems and Communication Sciences Ph.D. program, run by a consortium of Psychology, Electrical Engineering, Math, and GSIA. The new Ph.D. program began with the premise that students and faculty would be building up and working toward the development of an infrastructure, directives, and guidelines for this nascent field. The Department housed itself within the College of Engineering and Science, as part of the natural sciences, and without much difficulty coaxed a new generation of students to push the limits and test their ideas in unison.

The necessary funding was insightfully provided by the Richard K. Mellon fund, with a $5M gift that would enable the construction of a new building to “serve as a focal point of research and education in Computer Science,” the development of basic computer applications, the purchase of “modem” computers, and money to endow a professorship, the Richard King Mellon Professor of Computer Science and Psychology. Even then, the University sensed that a physically unified body of scientists; working together and across disciplines, would be a critical factor in the success of the new department. In conjunction with a generous grant of $992,000 from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the department was well underway and immersed itself in the creation of an environment that would nurture talent, assure intellectual excitement, and ensure that computing would thrive on campus.

From the very beginning, Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon was interdisciplinary and, in fact, drew its early strength from this meshing of students and faculty from the component disciplines. It was clear that an expansive approach to the field, fueled with solid science and a focus on the training of a new generation of scientists, would best serve the purpose of our campus and the industrial/academic community at large. This was a budding field, and Carnegie Mellon would be serving a critical role in populating the discipline with “trained professionals” who would be able to expand the parameters of what a computer could do and be used for. To accomplish this goal, it was agreed that graduate students would be supported and encouraged to work full-time on their research. The government was in accord, as were major industrial partners, enabling this ideal student status to be realized.

Spirited and inspired leadership was our good fortune throughout the formative years, beginning with Alan Perlis and moving through a distinguished group of Department Heads, including Joseph Traub, WilliamWulf, Nico Habermann, John McDermott (acting), Jim Morris, and Randy Bryant. A surprising consistency in leadership, with long tenure in the head position, added a stabilizing element to our unexpected growth over the early years. This continuity in perspective and commitment to fundamental goals assured a shared vision and appreciation for solid science mixed with an encouragement of innovative pursuits. This tolerance and receptivity to up-and-coming science was the impetus for the development of new research groups spun out of the core CSD, such as the Robotics Institute (a first nationwide in 1979) and the Information Technology Center (1982), where visions of intelligent, automated machines could be explored and information infrastructures and campus networks made realities.

By 1985, over 200 Ph.D. students had been graduated. Our graduates held key industrial positions nationwide and peppered academic faculty lists in major institutions. But by 1985, it was also apparent that the science was capable of even greater expansion. New areas within computer science were commanding attention, so much so that in 1986 the Computer Science Department requested that it begin a carefully thought-out process of becoming a School. Buttressed with the strong commitment of Allen Newell, Herbert Simon, Nico Habermann and Provost Angel Jordan, and the approval of President Richard Cyert, Computer Science began a two-year status as a ”floating” department. No longer embedded within the traditional confines of the Mellon College of Science, the Department began to stretch its scientific and fiscal wings, to see how it would evolve in a larger, more “open” state. The experiment was a resounding success, culminating in the Department’s elevation to the status of a School of Computer Science in the fall of 1988, among the first such schools in the country.

In 1992, the Computer Science Department (CSD) was reconstituted within the School of Computer Science (SCS). The only other official unit within SCS was the Robotics Institute (RI). Soon after, other units spun out of CSD, forming other administrative units within SCS: in 1994 the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) was established; in 1996, the Language Technologies Institute (LTI), subsuming the Center for Machine Translation; in 1997, the Center for Automated Learning and Discovery (CALD); in 1999, the Institute for Software Research International (ISRI). Also in 1999, the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) was established jointly with the College of Fine Arts. Although a University-level unit, the ETC drew half of its strength from SCS.

Today, over fifteen years later, SCS continues to reap the benefits of wise and effective leadership in its early years as a department.

Computer Science Department
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15213-3891
Wean Hall 4212. Phone: 412-268-2565, Fax: 412-268-5576