In what may be viewed as a valedictory interview after relinquishing the reins of the CSE department following six years as its Chair, Professor Rajesh Gupta sat down to speak with the San Diego Union-Tribune for a look back at how far the department has come. Science editor Gary Robbins notes that Gupta helped turn the UC San Diego undergraduate computer science program into the largest of its kind in the country.
He begins the article noting that Gupta brought in a donation of $18.5 million from an anonymous CSE alumnus, allowing Gupta to correct a design flaw in the CSE building when it opened in 2005: the undergraduate computer labs in the building's basement did not link directly to the other floors of labs, seminar rooms and faculty offices, "making it hard for students on the bottom floor... to conveniently mingle with the faculty members working above them," wrote Robbins. Armed with the largest gift ever from a UC San Diego alum, the department is now correcting the problem -- at a cost of roughly $3 million -- and expanding space and facilities on the ground floor.
In the interview published on Aug. 11 -- more than a month after Gupta stepped down as Chair as CSE professor Dean Tullsen assumed the job -- Gupta noted that UC San Diego calls itself a student-centered university. "That doesn't happen if you don't put students in the center of things, which has been a problem in our computer science building," said Gupta. "But we're fixing that." Asked about CSE's "explosive growth" in enrollment, especially at the undergraduate level, Gupta confirmed that "the faculty revolted" in response to high teaching loads (at a 44-to-one student-faculty ratio). "We brought in a lot of non-tenure-track lecturers to help, and they're wonderful. But that is only a temporary fix," explained Gupta. "We're now reducing enrollment and increasing the faculty size."
In response to a question about demand for master's degree programs in computer science, Gupta looked back to when he became Chair in 2010. "We had about 90 or so students in the master's program. This year, the figure was 350," he explained. "This fall, it will go to 450. In six years, the demand for master's degrees has gone up six times -- to 3,500 applicants. Students want the degree because it gives them more specialized knowledge in areas like machine learning, vision and computer systems. It places them in a better position to get jobs." Gupta admits that some faculty worry about taking attention away from Ph.D. students and their research. But he noted that there is a silver lining. "The good news is that [master's programs] account for over 50 percent of the growth in women applicants," said Gupta, "thus helping us in improving diversity in our graduate programs."
Asked about what corporations say they need from the department, Gupta said "the main thing I hear from industry is, 'Give us people with strong fundamentals'. The fundamentals include the ability to express yourself clearly and to work in groups and teams that promote achievement."
Read the San Diego Union-Tribune interview with Rajesh Gupta.