COMPUTER SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS 2020 McGregor Computer Science Center The future location of the Computer Science Department is rising from what was once a parking lot on the corner of Dartmouth Ave. and Platt Blvd. The second and third floors of the McGregor Computer Science Center will provide a much-needed new home for the rapidly growing department. The new space will expand the department’s ability to perform collaboratively not only across all departments at HMC but also with faculty and students from across the 5Cs and with industry and educational institutions across the country. Students majoring in some form of CS now outnumber engineering majors on campus. Twenty-four percent of all HMC-declared majors enrolled through the end of the spring semester were CS majors; another 21% were CS-math or math-comp-bio majors, making some variation of computer science the most popular major. (Engineering majors make up 31% of the student body.) In addition, the number of non-HMC students taking courses and majoring in CS at HMC has tripled. But the high demand for computer science classes has placed a strain on the department, limiting class registrations and causing frustration among CS majors and others. Construction of the McGregor Center will help offset this demand by creating room to grow from 16 to 25 faculty positions over time and will include faculty offices, Clinic and project studios, teaching and research laboratories and collaboration spaces. The larger space dedicated for computing will allow more contiguous CS space, bringing together previously fragmented elements, such as student project space, Clinic Program work areas and computer labs. While the College purchased its first computer in 1962 (the IBM 1620) and offered some classes in the late 1960s, it wasn’t until 1981 that the College hired Mike Erlinger
Blvd. A rendering of the McGregor Center as seen from Platt
to investigate whether the discipline of computer science should develop into an existing department or as a new administrative entity. Computer science became an academic department in 1984, Bob Keller was hired as its first chair in 1991 and, by 1992, the College graduated its first CS majors, Andrew Gray and Clifford Stein. In 1994, Jill E. Flansburg became the first woman to graduate with an HMC CS degree. Now, dozens of students graduate in CS each year and almost half of them are women. The computer science major has grown from 12% female in 2005 to nearly 50% female in 2019. According to the National Science Foundation, nationally women earned only 18% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science in 2015. Made possible by members of the HMC Board of Trustees, foundations, alumni, parents and friends—including a leadership gift from HMC Trustee Laurie J. Girand and
her husband, Scott A. McGregor—the new building will include a makerspace (a studio designed for hands-on, creative activities) and a machine shop, among other features. “The College is heading in a direction of further prioritizing inclusivity, community and preparedness for the next generation of students,” ASHMC President Kyle Grace ’21 said in a speech at the groundbreaking. “As a computer science major here at Mudd, I am excited to see our incredible computer science program become even larger.”
Watch the building’s progress at: hmc.edu/McGregor