Brown CS News

After an unmatched eight years as Brown CS Department Chair, Khosrowshahi University Professor of Computer Science Ugur Çetintemel stepped down at the end of June, with Professor Roberto Tamassia now succeeding him. “It has been an extraordinary experience and an honor to serve as the head of this amazing department,” Ugur tells us. 

“When I signed on as chair,” Ugur says, “I didn’t know quite what to expect. We don’t take courses on ‘how to chair’ in grad school. And Roberto was a big inspiration. It didn’t seem that chairing had any negative impact on his research productivity, teaching, or other efforts. He was often traveling, things were running very smoothly, and it all seemed quite effortless, so I concluded that if Roberto could do all this with 20% of his time, I should be able to do the same with 70-80% of mine…I was wrong!”

Initially anticipating a typical three-year term when he took on the role in July of 2014, Ugur agreed to extend his time in office by an additional two years, then was surprised by a request from the Brown administration – pleased by his work, they asked Çetintemel for a final span of three years in order to initiate the implementation of an approved departmental growth plan. Once again, he was willing.

One of Ugur’s initial concerns was that each year would be very much like the one before it, the same type of things repeated n times. But this turned out to be unfounded. The highlights of the past eight years are substantial by any measure:

• Enrollment continued to expand dramatically: last May, Brown CS graduated 366 undergraduates, 21.8% of Brown’s total. Just as it’s been for the last six years, Computer Science is the most popular concentration on campus.

• Brown CS made considerable efforts related to diversity and inclusion, including a self-study, external review, and the creation of a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) that won Brown’s 2021 DIAP Community Award for academic departments.

• More than 500 donors exceeded the $10,000,000 goal set for the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) Endowment, which will help sustain a program that’s allowed thousands of undergraduates to contribute to all aspects of instruction and play a mentoring role that’s vital to the quality of coursework, the educational experience of their peers, and their own personal growth.

• Brown CS launched the Socially Responsible Computing program, which puts societal and ethical issues at the heart of the undergraduate experience.

• Brown CS launched a program on Master of Science in Cybersecurity, the first fully online Master’s program at Brown. 

• After getting approval for a substantial faculty growth plan, the department embarked on the largest expansion in its history, CS With Impact. Including this year’s hiring, Brown CS grew to 43 regular faculty members. 24 of them, more than 50% of existing faculty, were recruited during Çetintemel’s term as chair.

“That last one is what I’m most proud of,” says Ugur, “and it’s ironic that I don’t really deserve much credit for it. We brought amazing new people into the department. They’re great additions, really terrific colleagues: very thoughtful, inclusive, and creative – I couldn’t be happier or more excited about the future of Brown CS. Our junior faculty is our biggest asset and selling point.”

Ugur is proud to note that the department’s successes were achieved in the face of considerable challenges: not only the growing pains of rapid expansion but intense social unrest and rapidly-evolving cultural and social norms at national and global levels that were reflected broadly across the campus. Not least of these was the COVID-19 pandemic, which had one of the most profound impacts on post-secondary education in living memory.

“There are so many people to thank, from the department leadership and faculty to our staff, as well as the University Administration and alums,” Ugur says. “They moved things forward with me and we dealt with all of the challenges together. I now have a much better appreciation for the commitment and contributions of all these folks. I was inspired and learned a lot from them. The relationships I formed as chair were definitely the most valuable and rewarding aspect of my term.”  

Looking ahead, Ugur says that he’s eagerly anticipating a sabbatical year in which he can reboot his research program and identify his new academic passion. With gratitude, Brown CS wishes him all the best in this new phase.

For more information, click the link that follows to contact Brown CS Communications Manager Jesse C. Polhemus.