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
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.
UCSB Computer Science, led by CS Professor Rich Wolski, joins an NSF funded Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation (CSSI) grant, to develop scalable data collaboration tools for multi-messenger astronomy.
Congratulations to our Alumni Awardees, who were honored for their accomplishments at the 2023 Award Ceremony.
On June 16th, 2023, we celebrated our graduate awardees at the CS Award Ceremony. Congratulations!
News Spotlight
Congratulations to Misha Sra, assistant professor in the Computer Science Department, for being one of nine UCSB faculty recipients of the 2023-24 Hellman Fellowship. The award is designed to support early- to mid-career faculty who have shown a capacity for great distinction in their work. Also honored this year is affiliated faculty member Nina Miolane of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.
Congratulations to UCSB’s Logic Wardens team for taking second place in the CSAW’23 Logic Locking Competition at NYU!
UCSB Natural Language Processing postdoc Liangming Pan has won the Area Chair’s Award at the International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing & Asian Pacific Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics.
The CS departments’ committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has announced the launch of the PhD Application Support Program (ASP). This student-led, volunteer-driven initiative offers a pre-application review service, aiming to support aspiring CS scholars from underserved backgrounds. The PhD ASP provides mentorship and application review, where current PhD students or postdocs from the CS department offer feedback on resumes, CVs, and statements of purpose. All volunteers undergo specialized training to ensure applicants receive insightful advice.
Congratulations to UCSB's GauchoChat team for taking first place overall and $250,000 in Amazon's Alexa Prize SocialBot Grand Challenge 5!
The Broadening Participation in Computing demonstration project, a collaboration between California State University Chico and UC Santa Barbara, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant of $300,000. Led by UCSB’s associate teaching professor Richert Wang and Chico’s associate professor Kevin Buffardi, the project team will focus on improving representation, relevance, and equity in computer science by framing high school instructional practices from the perspectives of women and Hispanic students.