Welcome to the Computer Science Department
at the University of California, Santa Barbara!
Why Computer Science?
Computer Science is an exciting, challenging, and growing field that impacts the world and everyday life in countless ways.
Computer scientists are involved in creating technology and systems that are used in a wide range of industries, including medicine, communications, entertainment, manufacturing, business, and science. CS research pushes the state-of-the-art in computing theory and practice, and it leads to new technologies that change the world.
Despite all the impressive achievements of the field, we are convinced that there are many more exciting discoveries and applications of computer science yet to come, and you can be part of this process of exploration, discovery, and invention!
Chair's Message
Distinguished Professor Divyakant Agrawal
Welcome to the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara!
CS@UCSB is a special place where exciting research meets exceptional teaching against the backdrop of wonderful natural beauty. As faculty, students, and staff of CS@UCSB, we feel lucky to be part of an outstanding department in the most impactful academic discipline of our times while living in one of the most beautiful places in the world!
Our Mission
The CS department at UC Santa Barbara is widely recognized as one of the top Computer Science departments in the nation, featuring a highly distinguished faculty and excellent students.
Our culture of education and research strongly encourages collaborative, entrepreneurial, supportive, multidisciplinary solutions-driven efforts at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Our students and graduates shape the future of science and engineering here and around the world. We are committed to providing a respectful and inclusive environment for all members of our community, free from all forms of discrimination and harassment.
The Computer Science Department seeks to prepare undergraduate and graduate students for productive careers in industry, academia, and government, by providing an outstanding environment for teaching and research in the core and emerging areas of the discipline. We bring computational approaches and solutions to some of society’s most vital and complex issues. We are presently engaged in research that promises game-changing breakthroughs in computing and will bring about advances in important areas such as healthcare, communications, education, government, energy efficiency, and the environment. We believe that we will help transform the future; that computing is central to shaping and improving the world by enabling data-driven scientific discoveries and bringing a world of rich, easily-accessible information to individuals everywhere.
The department has been on an impressive upward trajectory for many years, fueled by the quality and impact of our work, the recognition of our faculty, and the success of our graduates.
Announcements
Congratulations to the Computer Science Department's alumni awardees, honored at the 2024 Awards Ceremony.
Congratulations to the Computer Science Department's graduate awardees, honored at the 2024 Awards Ceremony.
Congratulations to the Computer Science Department's undergraduate awardees, honored at the 2024 Awards Ceremony.
UCSB’s William Wang recently received a promotion from associate professor to professor in the Department of Computer Science. Professor Wang is the director of UCSB’s Natural Language Processing group and the founding director of UCSB's Center for Responsible Machine Learning.
The Computer Science Department is pleased to announce that Maryam Majedi is joining UCSB as an assistant teaching professor.
Congratulations to UCSB’s Lei Li and Yu-Xiang Wang on their recent promotions from assistant professors to associate professors.
News Spotlight
Richert Wang, associate teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science and the College of Creative Studies, is one of six recipients of UCSB's Distinguished Teaching Award for 2023-24. The award recognizes senate and non-senate faculty who demonstrate outstanding achievements in research and the teaching mission of the university.
Professors Divyakant Agrawal and Amr El Abbadi along with UCSB Computer Science alum Mohammad Javad Amiri (assistant professor at Stony Brooke University) have received the Outsanding Paper Award at NSDI 2024 for their paper "The Bedrock of Byzantine Fault Tolerance: A Unified Platform for BFT Protocols Analysis, Implementation, and Experimentation."
Congratulations to Haarika Manda and Joyce Passananti, who have been selected to receive 2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, which provide three years of financial support toward completion of their degrees. Being selected as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow is a significant national accomplishment, placing them among an elite group of fellows who have gone on to distinguished careers in STEM or STEM education.