Recommendations

Based on majority consensus, the Committee makes the following recommendations concerning the future development of CS&E at UC Davis:

• Development of a Division of CS&E hosted in the College of Engineering. This is the organizational structure that the majority of the CS&E Committee favors. The establishment of an independent Division of CS&E in the College of Engineering, possibly initiated via a Program in CS&E, would (i) ensure that duplication of effort (with Computer Science) would be minimized--as a result of both CS&E and Computer Science being in Engineering--and (ii) ensure that both CS&E and Computer Science would control resources such as space and administrative and technical support independently. The Division's role concerning curricular development would be the formation of a Graduate Group in CS&E and the fostering of minors or emphasis areas in CS&E. Faculty in the Division could have joint appointments in departments representing applications for CS&E, and there could be a smaller number of faculty whose primary appointments would be in these other departments. The CS&E Division would differ from Computer Science in its commitment to a significant connection to application areas of computational methods--and in several other practical aspects. The Division should financially be independent. Just like the Division of Statistics is hosted in the College of Letters and Science, this model would serve the interests of students and faculty from all colleges. The campus would have to make major resource allocations available to the Initiative, i.e., to the College of Engineering, to enable the creation and support of the new Division. It is reasonable to expect that faculty would have varying percentages of appointments in the Division. The Division would have to serve the entire student body of UC Davis, and it would be imperative to mandate that the Division provide mechanisms enabling equal chances for access to its courses and programs. This concern must be resolved in order to generate wide-spread campus support for such a divisional model. The Division should financially be independent, i.e., the budget of CS&E should be separate from the budgets of other units, even if CS&E were initially affiliated with or coordinated through another unit. The Division of CS&E could evolve into a full Department of CS&E. (One Committee member, Professor Daniel Gusfield is not in favor of this recommendation, see section 5.)
• Development of a Center for CS&E. Regardless of the final organizational structure for CS&E education, the campus should consider the creation of a Center for CS&E, whose primary function would be to provide a desirable home for CS&E research efforts. The Center could serve these primary purposes: (i) it could be the place where the majority of interdisciplinary CS&E research efforts are performed and administered; (ii) it could play a leading role in the development of graduate education in CS&E and an enabling role during the initial development of undergraduate education in CS&E; and (iii) it could organize seminars and invited lecture series. Overall, the environment provided by the Center should be inviting and attractive to faculty and students from diverse CS&E fields to promote a lively atmosphere. The Center should be the primary coordinating institution for the campus's major CS&E research efforts. The Center should have its own independent budget, which must be sufficient to carry out its mission, including the functions listed as (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv).

Computational science and engineering education and research will play a substantial role in the university of the ${21}^{\rm st}$ century. UC Davis is in an ideal position to distinguish itself and become a national leader in CS&E by coupling the investments in CS&E with existing areas of excellence. The Committee believes that the desired and anticipated expansion of Computer Science at UC Davis should foster the hiring of faculty with a strong background and interest in both CS&E and computer science. This will help the campus's need for growth in CS&E education and Computer Science's need to deliver core computer science education.