"Late nights in the graphics lab allowed me to see how CS could connect with other disciplines and Brown’s honors program allowed me to experiment with my first truly interdisciplinary research project. All of this fed into my approach to CS, which is so beyond interdisciplinary at this point that it’s hard to even give me a disciplinary label."
— danah boyd, Microsoft Principal Researcher and Data and Society Founder
Brown CS is a diverse community engaged in all aspects of research, teaching, and mentoring. Due to the importance of computational thinking in many different endeavors, we collaborate with almost every department at Brown.
Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Options
Our joint majors reflect our collaborative orientation, with opportunities to combine CS with four other disciplines:
- Applied Math-CS
- Computational Biology
- Math-CS
- Computer Science-Economics AB
- Computer Science-Economics ScB
We also have strong undergraduate research groups in graphics, neuroscience, and robotics, as well as a long record of involving undergraduates in projects that span disciplinary boundaries.
Graduate Interdisciplinary Options
Our graduate students often have advisors in two departments, and they have a history of interdisciplinary work, from devising algorithms to improve characterization of genomic mutations in tumors to improving governmental response to natural disasters.
Large-scale partnerships like the Brain Science Program (made up of more than 70 faculty from ten departments) and the Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative (faculty, students, and affiliates using robotics to tackle current world problems) make it easy for students to customize their education to match their diverse interests.