COMP SCI
SURGE
T h e D e p a r t m e n t o f C o mputer Science expands to accommodate g r o w i n g s t u d ent enrollment . BY ASHLEY FESTA
As the world becomes increasingly data driven, the field of computer science has exploded with students—and there simply aren’t enough professors to teach them. At Haverford, as at many other colleges across the country, overcrowded classes have resulted in lotteries and course caps, leaving some computer science majors scrambling to complete requirements. “This is part of a broader national trend,” said Associate Professor of Computer Science Sorelle Friedler. “We have seen it here at Haverford even beyond the national trends. There’s been a lot of interest as there’s been more of a public understanding of the importance that tech companies play in democracy, for example, and just in our everyday lives.”
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Haverford Magazine
The issue at Haverford has improved thanks to the hiring of two tenure-track faculty members: Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sara Mathieson, who specializes in computational biology and began teaching in fall 2019, and Assistant Professor of Computer Science Alvin Grissom, who focuses on computational linguistics and is teaching his first classes this semester. The addition of Visiting Instructor of Computer Science Rajesh Kumar, who researches human-centered computing, biometrics and security, and applied machine intelligence, has further
