Department History
UTEP's first computer course was offered as Math 3324, Computer Programming, an "Introduction to digital computer programming and problem formulation for computers".
The UTEP basketball team won the NCAA national championship.
Two computer courses were added in Electrical Engineering: EE 3472 Digital Computers and EE 3474 Analog Computers.
Texas Western College was renamed the University of Texas at El Paso.
Electronic Data Processing, BUSN 3304, covering "punch card tabulating, electronic data processing, principles and problems of accounting systems ..." was offered by the newly founded School of Business.
The University Computing Center was established to cover all computer needs on campus: administrative, instructional, and research.
An interdisciplinary program in Computer Science was developed by Business, Mathematics and Electrical Engineering. This was despite opposition from some of the more traditional-minded faculty, who argued that computers were merely useful appliances, like toasters, and that the notion of "computer science" made no more sense than did "toaster science".
The first BSCS degree was awarded to Eduardo Aguilar.
The Computer Science program first appeared in the UTEP catalog. The program was administered by the Electrical Engineering Department and had three "options": Business, Computation (Algorithms) and Computer Systems. Courses included Digital Computation, Programming Languages, Assembler, Data Structures, Systems Programming, Minicomputers, Database Management Systems, Automata Theory, and Compiler Construction.
The main campus computer was "an IBM 360 Model 65 computer with 2.5 Megabytes of main memory and 2,000 Megabytes of direct access (disk) storage online". Student keypunches were located on the ground floor of Benedict Hall. There was also a "table-top computing lab" housing 21 IBM 5100 computers with APL and Basic on the fourth floor of the Classroom Building in the Engineering/Science Complex.
The first full graduating class received their degrees: Jorge A. Fernandez M, Robert A. Coyne, Jr., Lee A. Paicurich, Rafael J. Rasura, Daniel T. Rueda, Fernando Saenz-Chavira, and Wesley S. White.
Courses in Simulation and Operating Systems were added. The languages of instruction included Fortran, Basic, Cobol, Pascal, Assembler and JCL.
The Department of Computer Science was founded. The teaching faculty included Dr. Steve Riter from Electrical Engineering, Dr. Michael Gelfond from Mathematics, and new-hire Dr. Andrew Bernat, coming from the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii.
The new department was housed on the third floor of the Engineering Building.
Dr. John Starner became chair. Professor Patterson joined the department, as did Ray Bell.
The Master of Science in CS was first offered, with thesis and non-thesis options. It had a heavily interdisciplinary flavor at first.
Classes in Computer Graphics and Data Communications were added.
The department office moved to Bell Hall.
The first students graduated from the MS program: Andreas Hoetzel and Kay Roy.
Dr. Dan Cooke and Dr. Halina Przymusinska joined the faculty. Dr. Riter became chair.
Courses in Artificial Intelligence, Distributed Processing, and Senior Professional Orientation were added, and the two-semester Software Engineering capstone was introduced.
The department office moved back to the Engineering Building. Professor Williams joined the faculty.
Dr. Diana Natalicio was named President of UTEP.
Courses in Computer Networks and Computer Vision were added.
Dr. Vladik Kreinovich joined the faculty.
Dr. Riter left the department to become Dean, and Dr. Bernat became Chair.
The first issue of RagMag, the student-produced newsletter, appeared, with its distinctive humor and inside jokes.
Dr. Chitta Baral joined the faculty. Dr. Gelfond received the University Distinguished Achievement in Research Award.
The Old Geology Building was refurbished and CS moved in. The budget only allowed for an economical air conditioning solution, hence chilly labs and a toasty server room for the next 20 years. The interior decor broke away from institutional white and beige; consultation with Art Department faculty led to the choice of dusky purple, pale olive and dark orange, to evoke the colors of the desert.
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The Ph.D. program in Computer Engineering was established.
PACES, the Pan-American Center for Earth and Environmental Studies, was established with NASA sponsorship, in collaboration with Geology and Electrical Engineering.
Dr. Luc Longpre joined the department from Northeastern University and Dr. Ann Gates joined the faculty as a fresh Ph.D. Mr. Ron Challman also joined the department after retiring from IBM.
The first CS department website was launched; it also included the web's first pages on El Paso and on Juarez.
Dr. Patricia Teller joined the faculty, coming from NMSU; Professor Ralph Ewton also joined the department. Dr. Cooke became chair; he also received the University Distinguished Achievement in Research Award.
The UTEP CS Robot team won 3rd prize in the AAAI Office Navigation contest
The UTEP Swimming and Fitness Center opened.
The International Logic Programming Symposium was held at UTEP.
The UTEP CS Robot team won 1st prize in AAAI vacuum contest.
Dr. Cooke left to chair the department at Texas Tech and Mr. Jose Hernandez joined the department as Systems Administrator.
UTEP's new pickaxe logo was introduced.
Dr. David Novick joined the faculty as chair.
Dr. Gelfond left to join the faculty at Texas Tech, and Dr. Baral left for Arizona State University.
Richard Watson was the first Computer Science student to be awarded a Ph.D. (in the interdisciplinary Computer Engineering program).
External funding topped one million dollars per year.
Dr. Rolfe Sassenfeld joined the department.
Dr. Brian d'Auriol joined the faculty, coming from the University of Akron.
Ms. Rose Baquera came in and took charge of the office, starting with a thorough cleaning.
Dr. Bernat took leave to serve as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education.
The UTEP course numbering scheme was permuted; for example CS 4101 became CS 1401.
Scheme replaced Pascal as the initial language of instruction. Human-Computer Interaction was added to the curriculum.
The dot.com bubble burst.
The Masters of Information Technology (MIT) program was established as joint project of the CS Department and the School of Business Administration. Dr. Steve Roach, Dr. Francois Modave, and Dr. Karen Ward joined the faculty.
Mr. Frank Fernandez and Ms. Nelly Delgado joined the department as lecturers.
Ms. Beatriz Tarango joined the front office and Ms. Sue-Ann Walker became the graduate program coordinator. Dr. Ralph Ewton retired.
The undergraduate program was accredited by ABET.
Dr. Bernat left to become Executive Director of the Computing Research Association.
Dr. Nigel Ward joined the department from the University of Tokyo.
Raul A. Trejo received the University's Outstanding Dissertation Award.
Dr. Yoonsik Cheon and Dr. Martine Ceberio joined the faculty.
Java replaced Scheme as the first language taught.
Dr. Gates received the university's 2003 Chancellor's Council Award for Outstanding Teaching. Dr. Kreinovich received the 2003 UTEP Faculty Achievement Award for Research. Mr Bell's teaching was recognized with the UTEP Distinguished Teaching Award.
The interdisciplinary MS program in Bioinformatics was established. The Lockheed-Martin "Storefront" was established on campus.
The 1st Student-Faculty Paintball Afternoon was held.
Dr. Eric Freudenthal came to the department from New York University. Dr. Rodrigo Romero also joined the department. Dr. Karen Ward left to join the faculty at the University of Portland, and Mr. Bell retired.
Enrollment exceeds 400.
The Computer Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) was founded with NSF support, with UTEP as lead institution.
The Acceptance Estimator for Computer Science Graduate Admissions was created by Dr. Ward. Cassini crossed Saturn's ring plane, guided in part by software by Dr. Roach's group.
Oscar Mondragon was given the University Outstanding Dissertation Award for 2004 for his work on specification and verification.
The Ph.D. program in Computer Science was established.
Dr. Olac Fuentes joined the department from INAOE (Puebla, Mexico), returning to UTEP 14 years after earning his MS in CS. Dr. Paulo Pinheiro da Silva joined from Stanford.
Dr. Gates was named Chair.
Dr. d'Auriol left for the Ohio Supercomputer Center.
The Challman Scholarship was established; Nidia Pedgregon was the first awardee.
Fares Fraij was awarded the first Ph.D. in Computer Science, and received the University's Outstanding Dissertation Award for this work.
The Computer Science Fight Song was written, to be sung at TCM and other special occasions, to the tune of Marty Robbin's El Paso.
The Unix teaching lab was upgraded and converted from Solaris to Redhat Linux.
Mr. Jose Hernandez left to become Tech Manager for the College of Engineering.
NSF funding established the Cyber-SHARE Center of Excellence
The semi-annual NMSU/UTEP Workshop on Mathematics and Computer Science series began.
UTEP hosted SIGDOC 2007, the annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on the Design of Communication.
UTEP, in consortium with Stanford University and other partners, was awarded the administration of the Army's High Performance Computing Research Center.
Dr. Roach received the University's 2008 Chancellor's Council Award for Outstanding Teaching.
Ms. Rose Baquera left the department for Career Services.
The curriculum was streamlined down to 120 hours.
The Masters of Science in Information Technology program was given a more technology-intensive curriculum and a new acronym: MSIT.
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. and MS programs in Computational Science started.
SCAN 2008, the 13th GAMM - IMACS International Symposium on Scientific Computing, Computer Arithmetic and Validated Numerics, was held at UTEP.
Dr. Eunice Santos became chair.
Jaime C. Acosta received the University's Outstanding Dissertation Award.
The department is expected to move into the new Chemistry and Computer Science Building early in the year.
Compiled by Nigel Ward in July 2008. Dates are approximate. Corrections and additions are welcome; please mail cswebmaster@utep....