University of California, San Diego
Computer Science and Engineering
LaJolla, California
Overview
Established in 1964, UCSD is one of ten campuses of the University of California System. Despite its youth, UCSD is regarded as one of the premiere research institutions in the U.S., either public or private. The National Research Council has ranked it tenth for graduate program excellence, and the National Science Foundation ranked UCSD sixth in the nation and first in the UC System in federal research and development funding. CSE partner programs and institutes include the San Diego Supercomputer Center, Center for Wireless Communications, Center for Networked Systems, Institute for Neural Computation, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, the interdisciplinary Bioinformatics Graduate Program, and the Rady School of Management.
In the fall of 2004, there were 335 graduate students in the CSE department. Of these, 92 were new students (42 M.S.; 50 Ph.D.). The University's current graduate and professional student population is approximately 4,800.
The Location and Community
UCSD is located in La Jolla, a suburban seaside resort in San Diego. Consistently rated as one of the top ten places to live in the U.S., San Diego offers an ideal climate, averaging 70°F/21°C degrees with mostly sunny days, and a wide variety of cultural activities. The campus overlooks the Pacific Ocean and miles of sandy beaches, where sports, including surfing, snorkeling, and hang gliding, can be enjoyed year-round. The mountains to the east provide opportunities for hiking, rock climbing, and skiing. San Diego is just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, offering richly diverse cultural experiences that are unique to this international city. San Diego is a renowned high-tech and biotech community supported by University research and entrepreneurialism. San Diego is regarded as the wireless capital of the world, providing limitless opportunities for current students and future graduates.
Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), offers programs leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science and computer engineering. The M.S. program typically takes two years to complete and prepares students for positions in the computer and communications industries. The Ph.D. program typically takes less than six years to complete and prepares students for leading positions in technology industries, research labs, and academia. The core of these educational programs is built upon the research activities of the department. The department has significant strengths in most major fields of computer science and engineering, with particular specializations in algorithms and complexity; bioinformatics; embedded systems; computer systems and software, high-speed networking, databases, and distributed systems; cryptography and security; connectionist cognitive modeling, machine learning, information retrieval, and computer vision; computer graphics; compilers and software engineering; scientific and high-performance computing; and VLSI/CAD and computer architecture.
Facilities & Resources
The true force behind the department's research is students, who are regarded as colleagues and partners. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering provides extensive computing resources for research and education. This includes more than 300 high-performance UNIX/Linux and Windows-based workstations, a large number of laptop systems, and several hundred wireless personal digital assistants. In addition to general purpose file, e-mail, Web, and compute servers, the department maintains two network-attached terabyte disk arrays and four separate high-performance compute clusters. Through the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), which is a unique national facility, members have direct access to a variety of vector, multithreaded, and parallel supercomputers as well as a state-of-the-art high-performance visualization laboratory. Department network communications include a Gigabit Ethernet backbone, offering connectivity to both the commodity Internet and high-performance research networks such as Internet2. The department has wireless Internet connectivity via a campuswide 802.11b network and an experimental broadband wireless system in concert with Qualcomm. The department supports specialized equipment for individual research efforts in computer vision, computer graphics and computer architecture, networking, security, mobile systems, and distributed computing.
Expenses and Aid
For the 2005-06 academic year, California resident fees are $7866.50 (residents are tuition-exempt). Tuition and fees for nonresidents are $22,805.50. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can typically become California state residents after residing in the state for twelve months.
Financial Aid:
A variety of fellowships are available to Ph.D. students in 2005-06, providing stipends of $15,000 to $18,000. In lieu of a fellowship, Ph.D. students (and occasionally M.S. students) may be appointed either to a research or a teaching assistantship, both of which provide a monthly stipend of $1600. Tuition and fees, including health insurance coverage, are included in fellowship and assistantship stipends.
Housing/Living Expenses:
UCSD maintains more than 1,300 apartments for couples, families, and single graduate students, ranging in price from $573 to $1311 per month. For further information, students should contact Affiliated Housing at ahoinfo@ucsd.edu or visit their Web site at http://hdsu.ucsd.edu/hsgaffil/index.html.
How to Apply
The application deadline for fall 2006 admission is December 1, 2005, for the Ph.D. program and January 2, 2006, for the M.S. program. Applicants must hold a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. Suggested undergraduate training should be in one of the following disciplines: computer science, mathematics, electrical engineering, biology (bioinformatics), or physics. Applicants with degrees in other disciplines are considered if there is demonstrated preparation through appropriate course work in computer science. The General Test of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is required, and the Subject Test in computer science is recommended.
International and Multicultural Applicants
Most international applicants whose native language is not English are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The University of California does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, age, or sexual orientation in any of its policies, procedures, or practices, including, but not limited to, academic admission, financial aid, education services, and student employment.
Who to Contact International and Multicultural Applicants
Graduate Affairs
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093-0123
858-822-5978
E-mail: gradinfo@cs.ucsd.edu
Faculty and Research
• Donald W. Anderson, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., Berkeley. Computer graphics and applications of computers to education.
• Scott B. Baden, Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Large-scale computation: parallel algorithms, adaptive data structures, run-time abstractions, performance, applications.
• Vineet Bafna, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Penn State. Computational molecular biology.
• Michael J. Bailey, Adjunct Professor and Senior Principal Scientist, San Diego Supercomputer Center; Ph.D., Purdue. Computer graphics, scientific visualization, computational geometry, rapid prototyping.
• Mihir Bellare, Professor; Ph.D., MIT. Cryptography and security, complexity theory, probabilistic proof systems, approximation algorithms.
• Serge Belongie, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Computer vision, pattern recognition.
• Francine Berman, Professor and Director, San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI); Ph.D., Washington (Seattle). Parallel and distributed (grid) computing, adaptive computing, performance models, middleware, programming environments.
• Kenneth L. Bowles, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., Cornell. Computer networks, intelligent terminals, computer-based instruction.
• Walter A. Burkhard, Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Storage systems, data structures, algorithms, databases, programming languages, distributed systems.
• Samuel R. Buss, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Princeton. Mathematical logic, complexity theory, proof theory.
• Brad Calder, Professor; Ph.D., Colorado at Boulder. Computer architecture, compiler optimizations, multithreading, application-specific processors, embedded processors, instruction-level parallelism, distributed computing.
• J. Lawrence Carter, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., Berkeley. Scientific computation, performance programming, parallel computation, machine and system architecture for high performance.
• Henri Casanova, Adjunct Assistant Professor and Associate Research Scientist, San Diego Supercomputer Center; Ph.D., Tennessee. High-performance computing, parallel computing, distributed computing, performance modeling, scheduling, simulation.
• Chung-Kuan Cheng, Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Computer-aided design, VLSI layout automation, circuit partitioning, network flow optimization, physical design of multichip modules for hybrid package.
• Andrew A. Chien, Professor and SAIC Chair; Ph.D., MIT. Networks, distributed objects, operating systems, compilers and run times, object-oriented languages, computer architecture.
• Garrison W. Cottrell, Professor; Ph.D., Rochester. Connectionist models of cognitive processes, simple biological circuits, pattern recognition, dynamical systems, computational philosophy.
• Sanjoy Dasgupta, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Machine learning, algorithms.
• Alin Deutsch, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Pennsylvania. Databases, design and optimization of XML and semistructured query languages, data integration, security.
• Charles Elkan, Professor; Ph.D., Cornell. Automated reasoning, machine learning, Web information systems, expert systems, computational biology, data mining.
• Eleazar Eskin, Assistant Professor in Residence; Ph.D., Columbia. Bioinformatics, computational biology, machine learning.
• Jeanne Ferrante, Professor; Ph.D., MIT. Compiling for high performance, performance models, scheduling for distributed heterogeneous systems.
• Joseph A. Goguen, Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Software engineering, requirements, algebraic semantics of computation, user interface design, formal methods, theorem proving, social issues in computing.
• Fan Chung Graham, Professor; Ph.D., Pennsylvania. Graph theory, algorithms, combinatorics, communications networks.
• Ronald Graham, Irwin and Joan Jacobs Endowed Chair of Computer and Information Sciences; Ph.D., Berkeley. Algorithms, combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, computational geometry.
William G. Griswold, Professor; Ph.D., Washington (Seattle). Software engineering, ubiquitous computing, programming tools, software design, software evolution, user interfaces, programming languages.
• Rajesh K. Gupta, Professor and Qualcomm Endowed Chair in Embedded Microsystems; Ph.D., Stanford. Embedded systems, mobile computing, low-power design, VLSI/CAD for microelectronic systems.
• William E. Howden, Professor; Ph.D., California, Irvine. Software engineering, system design, software testing and validation, functional program testing, analysis of real-time systems.
• T. C. Hu, Professor; Ph.D., Brown. Combinatorial algorithms, communications networks, computer-aided design, distributed computing, operations research.
• Russell Impagliazzo, Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Computational complexity, cryptography, circuit complexity, computational randomness.
• Henrik Wann Jensen, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Technical University of Denmark. Computer graphics, realistic images synthesis, global illumination, appearance modeling.
• Ranjit Jhala, Acting Assistant Professor; Berkeley. Programming languages and software engineering.
• Andrew B. Kahng, Professor; Ph.D., California, San Diego. VLSI physical design automation and performance modeling/analysis, discrete algorithms, large-scale heuristic global optimization, computational commerce.
• Sidney Karin, Professor; Ph.D., Michigan. High-performance computing, computational science/engineering, distributed heterogeneous computing, scientific visualization, networking/communications, operating systems, data-intensive computing, high-performance computing resource integration.
• David Kriegman, Professor; Ph.D., Stanford. Computer vision, robotics, computer graphics.
• Ingolf H. Krueger, Assistant Professor in Residence; Ph.D., Technical University of Munich. Software architecture, distributed and reactive systems, component- and service-oriented development methods and technologies, system verification and validation, formal methods.
• Walter H. Ku, Adjunct Professor of CS, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director, NSF Center for Ultra-High-Speed Integrated Circuits and Systems (ICAS); Ph.D., Polytechnic of Brooklyn. Computer-aided design, VLSI chip design, VLSI algorithms and architectures.
• Bertram Ludäscher, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Freiburg (Germany). Databases, information integration, knowledge representation, scientific data and knowledge management.
• Keith Marzullo, Professor; Ph.D., Stanford. Fault-tolerance and high availability, distributed computing, group-based programming, responsive systems, application management.
• Daniele Micciancio, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., MIT. Cryptography, computational complexity, formal methods.
• Alex Orailoglu, Professor; Ph.D., Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Computer-aided design, digital and analog VLSI test, computer architecture, synthesis of reliable hardware, embedded systems, reconfigurable embedded processors.
• Alon Orlitsky, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Stanford. Information theory, data compression, computer learning, speech recognition.
• Philip M. Papadopoulos, Associate Research Scientist; Ph.D., California, Santa Barbara. High-performance clustering, heterogeneous distributed computing, parallel computing.
• Yannis G. Papakonstantinou, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Stanford. Databases, integration of heterogeneous sources, multimedia information systems.
• Joseph Pasquale, Beyster Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Operating systems, networks, multimedia, agent-based computing, mobile computing.
• Ramamohan Paturi, Professor and Department Chair; Ph.D., Penn State. Algorithms and complexity, learning theory, digital libraries.
• Pavel Pevzner, Professor and Taylor Chair; Ph.D., Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Bioinformatics, proteomics, combinatorial methods applied to computational biology.
• George Polyzos, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Toronto. Communication networks and protocols, wireless mobile communications and computing, multiaccess channels, multimedia distributed systems, systems performance evaluation.
• P. Venkat Rangan, Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Multimedia networks (digital video and audio on the Internet), Internet e-commerce (scalability security, Web services), mobile networks and services, technology entrepreneurship.
• Jeffrey B. Remmel, Adjunct Professor of Computer Science and Professor of Mathematics; Ph.D., Cornell. Nonmonotonic logic, logic programming, knowledge representation, program verification, hybrid control.
• J. Ben Rosen, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Columbia. Large-scale numerical optimization algorithms, global optimization with application to molecular structure and docking, structure-preserving approximation algorithms.
• Stefan Savage, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Washington (Seattle). Wide-area networking, distributed computer systems, security.
• Walter J. Savitch, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., Berkeley. Computational linguistics, formal language theory, complexity theory.
• Terrence J. Sejnowski, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Princeton. Computational neuroscience, neural computation, massively parallel architectures.
• Tajana Simunic-Rosing, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Stanford. Embedded computer systems, architecture, digital hardware design, embedded software and wireless systems.
• Larry Smarr, Professor; Ph.D., Texas at Austin. Grid computing, scalable high-performance architectures, information technology, optical networking, telecommunications, Internet-related technologies, wireless, visualization.
• Allan Snavely, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., California, San Diego. High-performance computing architecture, performance modeling and prediction, computer grid economics.
• Alex C. Snoeren, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., MIT. Operating systems, distributed computing, mobile and wide-area networking.
• Dean Tullsen, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Washington (Seattle). Computer architecture, multithreading architectures, instruction-level parallelism, compiling for high-performance processors, power-conservative architectures.
• Amin Vahdat, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley. Wide-area networking, distributed systems, operating systems, mobile computing.
• Alexander Vardy, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Tel-Aviv. Channel coding, information theory, communications.
• George Varghese, Professor; Ph.D., MIT. Computer networks and distributed algorithms.
• Victor Vianu, Professor; Ph.D., USC. Data and knowledge-base systems.
• Geoffrey M. Voelker, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Washington (Seattle). Operating systems, distributed systems, Internet systems, mobile computing.
• S. Gill Williamson, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., California, Santa Barbara. Algorithms, combinatorial mathematics.