Department Committees: Descriptions

Graduate and Research
It promotes research, including graduate student recruiting and enrollment, works with Research Groups on funding opportunities, coordinate department-wide grant efforts, coordinate all graduate examinations.

Education
Undergraduate and graduate academic and curricular issues, including new and revised courses, degree requirements, AP and transfer credit, TA allocation, academic petitions, review the Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogs, and Blueprints for Success.

Facilities
The CS Facilities committee advises the Department Head about the department's allocation, planning and maintenance of facilities, such as office and lab space, computers, and other office equipment, in collaboration with the lab manager.

Graduate Admissions
Review graduate applications, recommend applicants for admission and financial support.

Note: This committee will continue to function as before, because it is an operational committee, not a policy-making committee. It will work with the Graduate and Research Committee as needed.

Program Review
The Program Review committee evaluates the CS preparation of Transfer students, and confirms that graduating students have satisfied departmental requirements.

Assessment Coordination
The CS Assessment Coordination Committee (ACC) is responsible for developing methods and instruments to collect data to allow regular assessment of the CS department's undergraduate programs, as well as coordinating their use. Its duty is to provide feedback in the form of summaries and evaluations of this data to the department. It is also responsible for preparing the accreditation self study and coordinating the accreditation visit.

Public Relations
The CS Public Relations committee is responsible for overseeing all printed documents, web pages, news releases, published profiles, videotapes and events that might affect the perceived quality of the WPI CS Department. Works with campus media staff.

Recruiting
The CS Recruiting committee reviews the applications for tenure-track positions advertised by the Computer Science Department. The committee works closely with the department head to identify candidates who will be invited to interview. The committee organizes special departmental meetings to determine which candidates have enough departmental support to be offered a tenure-track position. The committee prepares the advertisement for tenure-track positions that will be sent to relevant magazines and on-line job posting web-sites.

Graduate Exam
The Graduate Exam Committee assembles and administers the written portion of the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam, which is given once a year, shortly after the end of the Spring Semester. The Committee also manages the process of enrolling students for the exam and communicating the results to the students.

Note: This committee will continue to function as before, because it is an operational committee, not a policy-making committee. It will work with the Graduate and Research Committee to monitor student progress through the examinations.

CS-ECE Steering
Works with ECE on issues of mutual concern, including cross-listed courses and other courses taken by majors in both programs, curricular issues, and the CNN and Information Security programs.

Building
The committee acts as liaison between Provost, consultants or architects and CS department regarding the proposed new academic building. Committee obligations include occasional meetings with the Provost, providing updates to the CS department, and site visits to other campuses.

Grad Council
The purpose of the Graduate Council is to provide a structured, informal process and environment to resolve problems, initiate activities, and foster cooperation between the CS faculty and all CS department graduate students, both supported and non-supported.

Library Liaison
The Library Committee serves as a liaison between WPI's Gordon Library and the CS department. This committee is responsible for coordinating the acquisition of computer science books and subscriptions to computer science related journals and book series. The Library Committee is responsible for keeping Gordon Library's CS collection current in the different areas of CS research and teaching within the allocated budget.

Colloquium
The CS Colloquium committee coordinates the department's weekly colloquium presentations, including scheduling of talks, providing guidance to speakers, arranging for rooms, presentation equipment, speaker lunches, and honoraria, and disseminating information regarding the colloquia in electronic and paper format. Speakers include invited researchers, candidates for faculty positions, WPI faculty, and students presenting their M.S. and Ph.D. research.

Technical Reports Coordinator
Track TRs, assign TR numbers.
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Last modified: November 28, 2006 10:40:26