Welcome to the homepage for the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS). We feature news, resources, research, and people involving our department and the computer science world. We hope that this website proves to be a useful aid for you during your study here at UIS. Also, we would like to take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to our new students and our returning students. We wish you a successful and rewarding academic semester.

The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) jointly sponsor the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAEIAE) Program. The goal of these program is to reduce vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in IA and producing a growing number of professionals with IA expertise in various disciplines. Students attending these designated schools are eligible to apply for scholarships and grants through the Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program and the Federal Cyber Service Scholarship for Service Program.
The Department Chair, Dr. Mims, and Dean Duley received the award at the 13th Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education (CISSE), Jume 1-3, 2009, Seattle. Official letters of notification are being sent to the University President, the state Governor, Members of Congress, and appropriate Congressional Committees.

The Schewe Professorship is the first named Professorship in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Dr. Keith Miller is a prolific and influential scholar. He is author or co-author of 60 articles in leading academic journals, a contributor to some 20 books and websites, and the author of 75 papers appearing in conference proceedings. He is in demand as a major conference speaker, appearing in venues as geographically diverse as the Association for Computer Machinery Symposium on Applied Computing in Dijon, France, to the Conference on Computer Ethics at Dartmouth College, from the Cyber Defense and Recovery Conference in Springfield, Illinois, to the EthiComp Conference in Sweden. He is also the recipient of many grants, including funding from the National Science Foundation.

University Scholar is an award honoring and rewarding outstanding teachers and scholars at the three University of Illinois campuses. The award comes with a grant of $10,000 each year for three years for research and scholarly activities. Dr. Braynov has an active research program in the area of computer security, information warfare, electronic commerce, and artificial intelligence. In the last four years, he has published 11 peer-reviewed articles and papers, co-chaired five international conferences, served on the program committees of 25 international conferences, presented seven invited talks, and reviewed 73 papers and articles for 21 journals and conferences.

GetEducated.com evaluates accredited programs and offers listings of the best online programs. This year, the Computer Science Master’s online program was ranked 5th among regionally accredited colleagues and universities. The designation indicates that our Master’s program has been reviewed and judged to offer a high quality distance degree to a national audience at tuition rates well below the national average. GetEducated.com’s Top 30 Ranked Best Buy Masters in Computer Science

Dr. Ted Mims, Chair, Computer Science Department, and Barbara Selvaggio, Online Program Coordinator, Computer Science, were recently interviewed by Getdegrees.com. Please visit www.getdegrees.com to read the full interview.

The 2009 Commencement and Honors reception was held on May 15th, 2009. The pictures from the ceremony could be viewed here. Congratulations to all graduate and undergratuate honors in computer science!

The Cyber Defense and Recovery Conference is a one-day program addressing the critical issue of keeping secrets safe and protecting data. The conference features many speakers from academia, industry, the local and the federal goverment. More information about the conference: conference brochure.

Academic programs from target schools are selected based on curriculum, makeup of the student body, and unique strengths the department provides for computer science majors. Our students will be able to take advantage of a number of new opportunities, such as additional, meaningful work and research internships; classroom presentations by corporate leaders who manage technology; and campus visits by employment recruiters. State Farm is a leader in providing financial services including insurance, banking, and investment products to clients throughout the U.S. Its systems department, based in Bloomington, Illinois, supports one of the largest private networks in the country.

The Cyber Defense and Disaster Recovery Conference is a one-day interactive conference addressing the critical issue of protecting our infrastructure assets. Breakout sessions will consider this issue from different perspectives. The conference futures several distinguished guest speakers: Bruce Finn, Jeff Thompson, Steven Miller, Denis Edgar-Nevill, the FBI Response Team, and Mark Cheviron. The conference will be held on March 7th, 2008. The brochure of the conference, including the registration information, could be found here.

The workshop called Computer Security is Good Business will be held on September 9, 2008. The workshop is cosponsored by NIST, the Small Business Administration, and the FBI’s InfraGard program. Materials about the workshop: Small & Medium-Sized Business Outreach, Flyer, Workshop Agenda.

A UIS feature story tells how the Computer Science Department has become a very successful department. "In 1990, we had approximately 45 graduates and 75 undergraduates," Dr. Mims said. "In the spring semester of 2007, we had 350 graduate students and 200 undergraduates. So we've had more than 500 percent growth since 1990." Watch the video.

Dr. Ping Deng joined us in the spring of 2008 as an Assistant Professor. She graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas in August 2007. Dr. Deng has published more than 15 papers in journals, books, and conference proceedings. She was also an invited speaker for several DIMACS workshops. Her research interests include database systems, data mining, and bioinformatics. Dr. Deng is teaching Introduction to database systems and Advanced database concepts.

NPR aired a report by Larry Abramson about the future of higher education. In the report, Dr. Mims describes the future of online education:
"But I can assure you that the next generation of students are '24/7 students' that want stuff right now. They don't want to come to your class and listen to a professor lecture and tell funny stories, they want just what they need to succeed in that class and get a job and be successful in life."
If you want to know the future of higher education, listen to Dr. Mims!
Here is the web text version with link to the audio.

Dr. Miller, a professor of Computer Science, delivers an astonishing talk on computers and love at the Taste of UIS Luncheon. According to him, computers can love and feel in their own way. The talk is described in a special article in the the State Journal-Register

Jeff Bosch, an online CSC student, won the Distinctive Excellence award in the 2006 Atmel AVR Design Contest! An interview with Jeff is published in the State Journal-Register The interview cites the Computer Science chair, Dr. Ted Mims who said that " The Midwest is known for good schools, but with our online program, we have people from all over the United States."

The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) publishes a quarterly magazine called IEEE Technology & Society (T&S). T&S is an award-winning magazine with circulation of over 3000, including 1700 members and affiliates of SSIT and approximately 800 research libraries. Professor Miller is appointed the Senior Associate Editor of T&S. Starting from December 2007, he will be the Editor-in-Chief!

National Level Information Assuarnce Subject Matter Experts from the Committee of National Security Systems and the National Security Agency reviewed the courseware offered by the Department of Computer Science and determined that it meets the National Training Standard for: