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
Professor Tevfik Bultan
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
The Computer Science Department releases the 2021 code of conduct.
News Spotlight
Join us in welcoming Professor Eric Vigoda to the UCSB Computer Science Department! His main research interests include Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, Randomized algorithms, Phase transitions in Statistical Physics, and Markov chains in Evolutionary Biology.
The Computer Science Department is pleased to announce that Shiyu Chang is joining UCSB as an Assistant Professor. His research centers on machine learning and its applications in natural language processing and computer vision.
The Computer Science Department would like to officially welcome Lei Li to UCSB! He will be an Associate Professor in the CS Department.
A paper titled “Teaching testing with modern technology stacks in undergraduate software engineering courses” by Scott Chow, Tanay Komarlu and Prof. Phillip Conrad was awarded Honorable Mention for Best Paper at ITiCSE’21, the 26th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education.
A paper titled “Optimal Dynamic Regret in Exp-Concave Online Learning” written by Assistant Professor Yu-Xiang Wang and PhD candidate Dheeraj Baby was selected as one of two best student papers at COLT 2021. The Conference on Learning Theory is widely regarded as the top conference for machine learning theory.
In the paper, the researchers show that the natural relationship between modern decision tree algorithms, new advances in race logic, and the underlying sensors themselves provides new opportunities for extremely efficient classification.