Donald Bren School Of Information And Computer Sciences
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The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, also known colloquially as UCI's School of ICS or simply the Bren School, is an academic unit of the
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
(UCI), and the only dedicated school of
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
in the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
system. Consisting of nearly three thousand students, faculty, and staff, the school has three buildings in the southeast section of UCI's undergraduate campus, and maintains student body and research affiliations throughout UCI. The school of ICS consists of three departments: Computer Science,
Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which the centra ...
, and
Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...
. The combined groupings focus the school around the fields of
computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...
and information processing. The departments confer eight undergraduate, eleven masters, and seven doctoral degrees in total, with some degree programs cooperating with affiliated schools.


History

In 1968, three years after UCI's founding, the Department of Information and Computer Science was created as an independent department, not belonging to any school. In 2002, the 35-year-old department was elevated to school status, and its faculty were partitioned into two departments, the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Informatics. The Department of Statistics, founded earlier in 2002, was included as a third department in the newly created school. In 2004, the school received a $20 million anonymous donation. The donation was later revealed to be from Donald Bren, a wealthy
real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to other ...
and head of the
Irvine Company The Irvine Company LLC is an American private company focused on real estate development. It is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with a large portion of its operations centered in and around Irvine, California, a planned city of more ...
. The school was renamed in his honor.


Academics

The school of ICS is one of less than fifty independent computer science schools in the United States, and the only one in the University of California system. ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranks Bren School as 29th in the United States for Computer Science , and 14th in public university programs. Among some ICS subareas, the school is ranked 4th in human-computer interaction, 9th in software engineering, and 8th in databases.


Undergraduate

The school possesses 8 undergraduate majors, ranging from lower level hardware to high level social computing, each providing a
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree (notably, Computer Engineering is not part of ICS, and resides in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering). Out of the 8 undergraduate majors in the Donald Bren School, 3 are unique interdisciplinary studies shared between the
Paul Merage School of Business The Paul Merage School of Business is the business school at the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine). The business school is housed in two buildings located on the eastern side of the UC Irvine campus, which is often ranked among the saf ...
, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, and the School of Biological Sciences. The majors that are available include Biomedical Computing, Business Information Management, Computer Game Science, Computer Science, Computer Science & Engineering, Informatics, Information and Computer Science, and Software Engineering. Non-interdisciplinary majors are: *The school's primary major is Information and Computer Science, focused on computer science theory and software engineering. In contrast to engineering majors, additional natural sciences (such as physics) are not required to complete the major. Two upper division theoretical mathematics courses are required, along with basic calculus, linear algebra, statistics, and discrete mathematics. The program allows students more freedom to pursue a selected field in computer science. Though not required for a degree, the school certifies specializations within the major: **
Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
**
Computer Systems A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...
**Implementation and
Analysis of Algorithms In computer science, the analysis of algorithms is the process of finding the computational complexity of algorithms—the amount of time, storage, or other resources needed to execute them. Usually, this involves determining a function that r ...
**
Information Systems An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems comprise four components: task, people, structu ...
** Networks and Distributed Systems **
Software Systems A software system is a system of intercommunicating components based on software forming part of a computer system (a combination of hardware and software). It "consists of a number of separate programs, configuration files, which are used to ...
* The second most popular major within the school is Computer Science, similar in composition to ICS. Though more limiting in electives, the major was formed around the recommended courses set by ACM and
IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...
, and features a more classical computer science curriculum.Bren School
Undergraduate degrees
12 March 2012. URL accessed June 8, 2011.
*
Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which the centra ...
, a major unique in the UC system. The higher level of social abstraction prepares students in such fields as software analysis, management, design, computer engineering interfaces. Undergraduate interdisciplinary majors are: * Computer Science and Engineering - hosted jointly by The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science.UC Irvine
Undergraduate Major in Computer Science and Engineering
2006. URL accessed December 10, 2006.
* Business Information Management (BIM) is administered by the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences as an interdisciplinary degree program with The Paul Merage School of Business. * Biomedical Computing (BMC)


Graduate

ICS provides 11 master's level and 7 doctorate level graduate programs. Since computing is a part of many other fields (which use or interact with computing technology), ICS collaborates with other schools in many of its programs.Bren School
Graduate Studies
''Information on all the degrees offered by the school'', 20 October 2006. URL accessed December 14, 2006.
The Department of Computer Science offers a general major to those who have no specialized field, and is awarded as Information and Computer Science (M.S.). Computer Science (M.S.,Ph.D.) allows for a wide range of fields, similar to the general degree; however, doctoral degrees require a particular research interest within the field, unlike the general degree.
Embedded Systems An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is em ...
(M.S.) more narrowly focuses students on the implementation of specialized computer systems. Knowledge Discovery and Data (M.S.) applies to informatics fields like
information processing In cognitive psychology, information processing is an approach to the goal of understanding human thinking that treats cognition as essentially Computing, computational in nature, with the mind being the ''software'' and the brain being the ''hard ...
and to computer science fields such as
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
. The Department of Informatics offers its own general degree Informatics Track in General Informatics (M.S.,Ph.D.), however doctoral candidates must have a specific research interest. Informatics Track in Interactive and Collaborative Technology (M.S.,Ph.D.) narrows its general degree to the field of
human–computer interaction Human–computer interaction (HCI) is the process through which people operate and engage with computer systems. Research in HCI covers the design and the use of computer technology, which focuses on the interfaces between people (users) and comp ...
, with end parties as wholly human or man and machine.
Software engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...
is researched under the Informatics Track in Software (M.S.,Ph.D.) degree, as software development processes are directly related to human interaction and information systems. Three multi-discipline fields exist, spread across more than one school. Networked Systems (M.S.,Ph.D.) involves both the School of Engineering and the school of ICS. The research area covers high and low levels of telecommunications and computer networks. Arts Computation Engineering (M.S.), as its name suggests, covers both the School of Engineering and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts in addition to ICS. The field relies heavily on high level informatics principles, applying science to the arts. Informatics in Biology & Medicine (M.S.,Ph.D.), requires classes within the wide fields of Biology. Research may range from microscopic systems, such as proteins, or macro-level systems, such as populations. Though the Department of Statistics currently has no undergraduate degrees, it offers one graduate program: Statistics (M.S.,Ph.D.). The graduate program may help model many different problems, and is highly applicable to researchers in other fields such as economics and biology.


People

The current Dean of the Bren School is Marios Papaefthymiou. Papaefthymiou is a professor of
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
and, as dean, he holds the Ted and Janice Smith Family Foundation
endowed chair A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are ...
in ICS. Noteworthy alumni have graduated from the school, including:
Roy Fielding Roy Thomas Fielding (born 1965) is an American computer scientist, one of the principal authors of the HTTP specification and the originator of the Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style. He is an authority on computer network ...
, co-creator of
Hypertext Transfer Protocol HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, wher ...
and the
Apache HTTP Server The Apache HTTP Server ( ) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source cross-platform web server, released under the terms of Apache License, Apache License 2.0. It is developed and maintained by a community of developers under the ...
;Fielding, Roy T.
Roy T. Fielding
''Fielding's ICS homepage'', 8 December 2003. URL accessed December 10, 2006.
Patrick Hanratty,
CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...
pioneer;
Paul Mockapetris Paul V. Mockapetris (born 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, US) is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer, who invented the Internet Domain Name System (DNS). Education Mockapetris graduated from the Boston Latin School in 1966, receiv ...
, creator of
Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...
and the first
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typ ...
server; Steven Joe, CEO of
D-Link D-Link Systems, Inc. (formerly Datex Systems, Inc.) is a Taiwanese multinational manufacturer of networking hardware and telecoms equipments. It was founded in 1986 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. History Datex Systems was founded i ...
North America.


Facilities

The school currently has three associated buildings operational, providing over of space. Labs are located in each building, with over 500 administered computers total. All buildings are positioned adjacent to the School of Engineering at the South-East side of UCI's undergraduate campus. The Information and Computer Science building (ICS), previously named the Computer Science building, is the primary facility for undergraduate instruction, consisting on 4 floors, opposite to the Engineering Tower (ET). The bottom (and first) floor links physically to ET's bottom floor, while the second floor shares the same plaza with the ET. The bottom floor consists of three instructional labs, CS183, CS189, and CS192—each lab contains 45 Microsoft
Windows Server Windows Server (formerly Windows NT Server) is a brand name for Server (computing), server-oriented releases of the Windows NT operating system (OS) that have been developed by Microsoft since 1993. The first release under this brand name i ...
machines, used primarily as desktops for first year undergraduates. Lab CS193 is used for business related software projects for upper division undergraduates, and holds 24 Windows machines. Both the first and second floors contain instruction halls and classrooms, while the third and fourth primarily contain meeting and faculty offices, except for CS364.Bren School
ICS building floor plan
, 2006. URL accessed December 10, 2006.
The building also has the largest computer lab, ICS364, containing 117 Windows, 12
OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
, 12
Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...
Java boxes, and 11
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
Network Stations. Each Network Station includes 4
Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...
PC with
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
operation systems, 4
Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...
routers, and 4
Netgear Netgear, Inc. (stylized as NETGEAR in all caps), is an American computer networking company based in San Jose, California, with offices in about 22 other countries. It produces networking hardware for consumers, businesses, and service provide ...
Ethernet Hubs. The lab is also located next to the air conditioned server room, visible to each other through a large window.Bren School
ICS Lab Hardware
2006. URL accessed December 10, 2006.
Information and Computer Science 2 (ICS2), is a narrow computing facility surrounding the South-East side of the ICS tower. ICS2 houses graduate offices in of space. It is also home to the Human Computer Interaction lab.Bren School
ICS 2 building floor plan
, 2006. URL accessed December 10, 2006.
Donald Bren Hall is the latest addition to the school, completed in early 2007. It consists of , making it the largest building in the ICS family. It houses offices for many ICS faculty and staff, in addition to the 4 lecture halls and 10 classrooms.Bren School
Bren Hall
2006. URL accessed December 10, 2006.
Two former buildings, the
Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...
-designed ICS Engineering Research Facility (IERF, a laboratory facility, with an added instruction hall and classroom) and Computer Science/Engineering (CS/E, a office and facility building near Bren Hall and IERF) were demolished in January 2007.Bren School
IERF building floor plan
, 2006. URL accessed December 10, 2006. Bren School
CSE building floor plan
, 2006. URL accessed December 10, 2006

, Associated Press, January 23, 2007.


Associated bodies


Research organizations

ICS helped found the Ada Byron Research Center (ABRC), which helps minorities in the field of Computer Science. Named in honor of the 19th century female mathematician
Ada Lovelace Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (''née'' Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), also known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-pur ...
, ABRC aims at not only increases minority researchers, but closing the
digital divide The digital divide is the unequal access to information technology, digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet. The digital divide worsens inequality around access to information and resources. In the Information ...
. The current director is the Dean Richardson of ICS.Williams, Michelle
New UCI center promotes diversity in technology fields
8 January 2004. URL accessed December 10, 2006.
The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology ( Calit2), is a multidisciplinary research organization within the University of California. UC Irvine and
UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...
currently house the two Calit2 buildings. Space at Irvine's Calit2 building is provided to any collaborative project that fits within Calit2's goals.Calit2
About Us Overview
''Calit2's official summary page'', 2006. URL accessed December 10, 2006.
Cheung, Jonathan
About Us Overview
, ''Calit2's official summary page'', 2006. URL accessed December 10, 2006.
LUCI, the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction, is a computing research center. Connected Learning Lab (CLL), directed by Mimi Ito researches, designs, & mobilizes learning technologies in equitable, innovative, and learner-centered ways.


Student organizations

The ICS Student Council is the official student government of the school. It acts as an umbrella organization over all ICS student organizations. It hosts regular social, professional development, and networking events, including the yearly ICS Week. It also maintains and operates multiple open-source projects. The ICS House is a 2-story on-campus house located within UCI's Arroyo Vista housing community. ICS House accepts a limited number (approx. 16) of students from the school of ICS or outstanding applicant, based upon an application process. UC Irvine ACM (ACM) is UCI's student chapter of the
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
. The chapter hosts regular meetings and competes in competitive programming contests including the
International Collegiate Programming Contest The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is an annual multi-tiered competitive programming competition among the universities of the world. Directed by ICPC Executive Director and Baylor Professor William B. Poucher, the ICPC oper ...
. Women in Information and Computer Sciences (WICS) is a student run organization to help and encourage women in the fields related to computer science. Cyber at UCI (Cyber@UCI) is a cybersecurity-focused club which hosts regular events and competes at competitions including the
National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition The National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) is the championship event for the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition system – the largest college-level cyber defense competition in the USA. The event is held annually in the San Antoni ...
. Management Information Student Society (MAISS) is a student-run organization for students interested in technology and business.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Donald Bren School Of Information And Computer Sciences University of California, Irvine Computer science departments in the United States Information schools Universities and colleges established in 1968 Educational institutions established in 2002 2002 establishments in California University subdivisions in California Computer science institutes