COMPUTER SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS 2021 Update from the Department Chair
Dear Alumni, Parents and Friends of HMC CS, I am excited to share the 2021 CS newsletter with you from the brand new Scott A. McGregor Computer Science Center! The McGregor Computer Science Center sits on the corner of Dartmouth and Platt and provides a welcoming gateway to the HMC campus. It brings together CS offices, Clinic and research spaces, and CS labs and classrooms under one roof and provides a new home for the many activities of the entire HMC CS community; highlights of which I’m excited to share in this newsletter. We begin the 2021–2022 academic year with considerable excitement, welcoming two new classes to campus. The halls of McGregor are buzzing with students catching up with each other and with professors and staff—it’s
nearly impossible not to encounter groups of students huddled together, working through problem sets or chatting about life. Our CS professors and students return to campus with a renewed eagerness. Indeed, both faculty and students alike mention how energizing it is to be back in the classroom. Moving our HMC CS curriculum online last year forced us to think creatively about pedagogy, and has led to exciting new ideas and experiments in our classes this fall. Our new state-of-the-art labs and Clinic workrooms will provide space for curricular innovations for years to come. As I begin my inaugural year as CS department chair, I do so with a heart full of gratitude to our students and faculty for the courage, grace and compassion with which they navigated a year full of unprecedented
challenges. I am grateful for our staff, who helped us seamlessly transition to our new building while managing the turmoil of a pandemic. I am indebted to our network of families and alumni for their unwavering support. And finally, I extend my appreciation for the many leaders who preceded me in building this department to what it is today. A special thanks to our most recent department chair, Melissa O’Neill, who led our department through a period of vibrant growth, and to 2020–2021 interim department chair Bill Daub, who led us through the challenging pandemic year. We also send our warm congratulations and a fond farewell to Ran Libeskind-Hadas, who is moving across the street to become the founding chair of integrated science at Claremont McKenna College. I am honored to serve the HMC CS community as department chair and do so standing on the shoulders of giants. I am eager to see how we can grow together as a community in the years to come!
Jim Boerkoel
Csilla & Walt Foley Professor and Chair, Department of Computer Science