Computer Science: Ten Reasons To Join Us!

• Cutting Edge Research:
  Are you interested in researching the next generation of firewalls for high speed networks? How about developing biometric iris recognition technology for the military? Maybe finding drug targets by unraveling cellular signaling networks piques your interest? Or perhaps you enjoy integrating computers and the arts? Each of these cutting-edge opportunities, and more, are available to you in the Wake Forest Computer Science graduate program.
  
  
• Premier Faculty:
  The department has twelve full time faculty members, 10 of whom are tenured or tenure track. Two of our faculty, Dr. Robert Plemmons (shared appointment in Math and Computer Science) and Dr. Jacquelyn Fetrow (shared appointment in Physics and Computer Science), are Reynolds Professors, the University's most prestigious professorship. Dr. Plemmons was recognized in 2005 by the WFU Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for most external funding received and largest single funding award at Wake Forest University. Dr. Fetrow and Dr. David John won the 2006 WFU Teaching Innovation Award for their Fall 2004 Bioinformatics course. Dr. Fulp received the Reid-Doyle Prize for Excellence in Teaching at the 2007 Founder's Day Convocation. At the 45th annual meeting of the ACM Southeast Conference, the poster by Qiang Zhang, Han Wang, Robert Plemmons, and V. Paul Pauca on Spectral unmixing using nonnegative tensor factorization was the Best Poster Award Winner.
  
  
• Intimately Sized Department:
  With a faculty-graduate student ratio of under 2 to 1, you are guaranteed personal attention. In addition, the small size of the graduate program allows for significant personal interaction between graduate students both within and outside of the classroom.
  
  
• Access to Computational Resources:
  Within the Computer Science department, you will be provided the opportunity to work with a broad range of hardware and software, including Windows XP based PCs, Mac OS systems, and multiple flavors of Unix environments (including Solaris and RedHat Linux). The department helps to support the University DEAC cluster. By October 1,2007, the cluster will consist of 65 64-bit nodes (260 processor cores) with 4GB/node (1GB/core) as well as 122 32-bit nodes (244 processors) with 2GB/node (1GB/processor) that will still be in production. The department also maintains its own 10-node mini-cluster as part of the NC Consortium on Grid Computing.
  
  
• Structural and Computational Biophysics Track:
  The MS in Computer Science program provides the opportunity to participate in the innovative and unique Structural and Computational Biophysics Certificate Track at Wake Forest University. This track allows you to obtain a MS degree in Computer Science as well as obtain the appropriate training across disciplines to perform research in the growing area of bio-informatics and bio-technology. This track involves the departments of Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, and Bio-Chemistry.
  
  
• Top-Ranked University:
  By enrolling at Wake Forest, you will be joining a university ranked 27th among national universities in the 2005 edition of U.S. News & World Report's guide, "America's Best Colleges." Opportunities exist to interact with the programs at the highly ranked Bowman Gray School of Medicine, as well as with the Calloway School of Business (ranked 24th nationally in undergraduate business programs) and Babcock Graduate School of Management (ranked in the top 50 MBA programs by multiple publications).
  
  
• Technology-Centric Campus:
  Wake Forest University is consistently ranked as one of the "most-wired" campuses in the country. Every campus building has high-speed wired internet connections as well as WiFi internet access.
  
  Upon matriculation, Computer Science graduate students are issued ThinkPad laptops to assist them with their graduate studies. If a graduate student leaves the Computer Science Graduate Program without graduating, the laptop must be returned to the university. Upon graduation from the Graduate Program in Computer Science, the graduating student takes ownership of the ThinkPad.
  
  
• Diverse Opportunities:
  Wake Forest University provides significant opportunities to graduate students to extend one's education beyond the classroom. Two such opportunities are Graduate Richter Scholarships and interaction with the University Center for Entrepreneurship. Richter Scholarships are competitively awarded for students proposing an independent study project requiring travel away from Winston-Salem, typically to an international location. This project should combine both the student's research interests as well as a service component. The University Center for Entrepreneurship provides education, mentoring, meeting spaces, and the possibility for competitive funding for new business ideas.
  
  
• Convenient Location:
  Wake Forest University is located in Winston-Salem, NC - in the heart of the North Carolina Triad region. This places the department within an hour and a half of Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill and the Research Triangle Park, the technology heart of the Southeast. Blacksburg, VA, home of Virginia Tech, is also within a 2-hour drive. The Triad area is part of the I-85 Corridor, dubbed the Booming Business Belt, that stretches from Virginia to Alabama, tracing it's way through Raleigh, the Triad, Charlotte, Greenville-Spartanburg, and Atlanta. Wake Forest is easily accessible via air by flying into Piedmont Triad International airport.
  
  
• Great Atmosphere:
  Outside of the classroom, opportunities abound! Feel free to attend premier NCAA Division I sports for free as a student - basketball, field hockey, and golf are usually all nationally ranked! Explore the majestic home of R.J. Reynolds, the tobacco magnate whose former residence sits right next door to the University. Visit Old Salem, the early 18th-century settlement preserved today as a living history museum. Set out for a day of hiking at Pilot Mountain State Park, or drive a little further and reach the NC Blue Ridge mountains and Appalachian Trail.

 

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