McGill University School of Computer Science

School of Computer Science
Address
McGill University Montreal
Information
Type	Public
Established	1969
Director	Gregory Dudek
Campus	Urban
Information	514-398-7071
Website	http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/

The School of Computer Science (SOCS) is a department in the Faculty of Science at McGill University in Montreal. The school is the second most funded computer science department in Canada. It currently has 34 faculty members, 60 Ph.D. students and 100 Masters students.

The first graduate student in the computing field at McGill University was Gerald Ratzer. He came from Cambridge, England in September 1964, and was registered for a M. Sc. in the Faculty of Graduate Sciences. He was attached to the McGill Computing Centre, and his supervisor was David Thorpe, who was the Director of the Computing Centre. The creation of a Computer Science organization was led by the Dean of Engineering George Lee (John) d'Ombrain, who wished to see computers used for assisted learning in classrooms, as well as data systems in hospitals. He is also credited with bringing the first computer to McGill University. However, there were some detractors from the idea to create a Computer Science school. One mathematician is alleged to have said, "When radios came along, we did not start a School of Radio Science! Computers are just another application of Electrical Engineering!" The School of Computer Science was formally created in 1969.

The use of the term "School" was to reinforce the idea of independence from the Faculty of Engineering. Over the years, the School of Computer Science continued to face difficulties over sharing resources such as academic slots, teaching assistants, and space with their Engineering peers. This was partly due to cross-appointments of faculty from Electrical Engineering, leaving Computer Science understaffed. There were also concerns amongst engineers that Computer Science was not a professional discipline, and that students would choose Computer Science over Engineering, lowering the amount of funding available. This led to engineers pressuring the School not to have major and master's degrees for a long time. The minor in Computer Science was created in 1978 with the undergraduate program following in 1979; however, the major program was not created until 1990. Eventually, a heated debate between Dean Dealy of the Faculty of Engineering and Dean Shaver of the Faculty of Science in 1995 led to the School moving to Science in 1997.

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