# Cornell Computing and Information Science

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The **Cornell University Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science** (formerly the **Faculty of Computing and Information Science** from 1999 to 2020), also known as **Cornell Computing and Information Science**, is a tri-department unit at [Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University) in [Ithaca, New York](/source/Ithaca,_New_York). It consists of the departments of Computer Science, of Information Science, and of Statistics and Data Science.

According to Cornell computer science professor [David Gries](/source/David_Gries) in 2015, "essentially it's a college without students,"[2] with students instead being admitted to, and coming from, three of Cornell's regular undergraduate schools: the [College of Engineering](/source/Cornell_University_College_of_Engineering), the [College of Arts and Sciences](/source/Cornell_University_College_of_Arts_and_Sciences), and the [College of Agriculture and Life Sciences](/source/New_York_State_College_of_Agriculture_and_Life_Sciences_at_Cornell_University).[3] A variety of degree programs are offered through the college, depending upon the department within the college and the originating college the student is in; the degrees granted include [Bachelor of Arts](/source/Bachelor_of_Arts) and [Bachelor of Science](/source/Bachelor_of_Science); [Master of Science](/source/Master_of_Science), [Master of Engineering](/source/Master_of_Engineering), and [Master of Professional Studies](/source/Master_of_Professional_Studies); and [PhD](/source/Doctor_of_Philosophy).[4] In addition, students from any of Cornell's seven different undergraduate schools can [minor](/source/Academic_minor) in computer science or in information science.[3]

## History

### Faculty of Computing and Information Science

The college came out of the **Faculty of Computing and Information Science**, which was established in 1999 to unify computer science-related efforts throughout the university.[5] The initiative, done under the university presidency of [Hunter R. Rawlings III](/source/Hunter_R._Rawlings_III), overcame early opposition from many professors in both the Engineering and Arts schools.[6] The new faculty's first dean was [Robert L. Constable](/source/Robert_L._Constable), a longtime professor of computer science at Cornell who specialized in connecting computer programs with mathematical proof systems.[5] The idea of the entity, which Constable had been one of the primary advocates for, was to elevate [computer science](/source/Computer_science) from the department level to the college level;[2] this was seen as critical given the field's increasingly widespread importance to nearly every area of study at the university.[7] Furthermore, the [information science](/source/Information_science) side of the faculty would focus on how computer-related technology was affecting society and the world.[8]

In 2005, the Department of Statistical Science was incorporated into the faculty.[9] A $25 million donation from the [Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation](/source/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation) in 2006 led to the construction of the building named after couple,[7] which opened in 2014.[10] Other CIS facilities include [Rhodes Hall](/source/Cornell_University_Center_for_Advanced_Computing),[10] as well as Malott Hall.[4]

Constable would remain as the faculty's dean for ten years.[5] When he stepped down from the post, Provost [Biddy Martin](/source/Biddy_Martin) said that Constable had succeeded in giving computing reach into areas as different as architecture, history, plant science, and psychology.[5] He was succeeded as dean by [Daniel P. Huttenlocher](/source/Daniel_P._Huttenlocher).[11]

According to Cornell professors and administrators, the Faculty of Computing and Information Science was a "pioneer" in devising this structure, and other universities have since emulated aspects of it.[12][13] In particular, other institutions began tying computer science and information science more closely together.[11] Huttenlocher took the interdisciplinary approach of the Faculty of Computing and Information Science to his next position, at [Cornell Tech](/source/Cornell_Tech), and then in the late 2010s he became the first dean of the [MIT Schwarzman College of Computing](/source/MIT_Schwarzman_College_of_Computing) at the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology), which also emphasized an interdisciplinary perspective that emphasized the impacts of computing technology on society.[14]

As an example of how the Faculty of Computing and Information Science emphasized the value of multidisciplinary studies,[2] one initiative of the faculty was to support [double majors](/source/Double_majors_in_the_United_States) between computer science and a variety of other subjects in any of the Arts, Engineering, or Agriculture schools.[15] This proved successful in increasing the number of women who were computer science majors.[15] Indeed, by 2020 some 43 percent of students majoring in CIS were female, a figure well above typical for the United States.[8] The final dean of the faculty was Kavita Bala, who had been chair of the department of computer science and was named to the position in 2020.[13] Then when the college was created later that year, she became the first dean of it.[8]

### Formation of the college

Creation of the college came in December 2020 with a more-than-$100 million donation from [Ann S. Bowers](/source/Ann_Bowers).[8] Bowers, a liberal arts alumnus of Cornell, had been the head of personnel at [Intel](/source/Intel) during a period of rapid growth in the early 1970s; subsequently married [Robert Noyce](/source/Robert_Noyce), the cofounder of Intel; was vice president for human resources at [Apple Computer](/source/Apple_Computer) in the early 1980s; and later became a philanthropist who chaired the [Noyce Foundation](/source/Noyce_Foundation) following her husband's death.[16] She had frequently donated to Cornell in the past.[8]

In summer 2025, a new four-story 135,000 square feed building was opened [17]. The building was partially funded by a $10 million donation from the two founders of [Wayfair](/source/Wayfair), both Cornell alumni,[18] as well as from Bowers.[10] The new structure was designed by [Leers Weinzapfel Associates](/source/Leers_Weinzapfel_Associates) and was built adjacent to Gates Hall, with green space located in between to form a [mini-quad](/source/Quadrangle_(architecture)).[10] Construction was on the site of [Hoy Field](/source/Hoy_Field_(Cornell)), the longtime [varsity baseball team](/source/Cornell_Big_Red_baseball) diamond (which will be relocated further out from the central campus, at some loss of convenience and tradition).[12] The new building is intended to help handle a factor-of-six increase in computer and information science enrollments during the previous decade.[19]

Graduate student programs in the college take place both in Ithaca and at the [Cornell Tech](/source/Cornell_Tech) campus in New York City.[20]

By 2022 there were 62 full-time faculty members in the Department of Computer Science, with 49 in Ithaca and 13 in New York City.[21] There were 42 full-time faculty in the Department of Information Science,[22] and 18 tenure or tenure-track positions in the Department of Statistics and Data Science.[23] By 2022, there were 2,000 students taking majors in the college,[24] and 76 percent of all undergraduate students were taking at least one course in CIS.[12] The college is located in Bill & Melinda Gates Hall near the Engineering Quad on the [Cornell Central Campus](/source/Cornell_Central_Campus) in Ithaca, New York.[25] A new 135,000 square-foot building is scheduled to open in 2025 [26] to help accommodate the rapidly increasing enrollments in computing and information science subjects.[10]

The inaugural dean of the college is [Kavita Bala](/source/Kavita_Bala).[27] Bala was named Cornell's 17th provost on January 1, 2025.[28]

## Rankings

Cornell has long had one of the top-ranked computer science programs in the nation.[29] It placed in a tie for sixth overall in the [U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings](/source/U.S._News_%26_World_Report_Best_Colleges_Ranking) for 2022, with specialty rankings of third in [theory](/source/Theoretical_computer_science), third in [programming languages](/source/Programming_language_theory), tied for fifth in [artificial intelligence](/source/Artificial_intelligence), and twelfth in [computer systems](/source/Computer_systems).[30]

Cornell ranked in a tie for thirteenth in statistics in the same 2022 rankings.[31]

## References

1. [https://bowers.cornell.edu/dean](https://bowers.cornell.edu/dean)

1. Constable, Robert L. (July 21, 2015). ["A Conversation with Robert L. Constable"](https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/40560). *An Oral History of Computer Science*. Cornell University Library. See segments at 2:05 and 31:25.

1. ["Undergraduate Opportunities"](https://cis.cornell.edu/students/undergraduate-opportunities). Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 12, 2022.

1. ["Departments"](https://cis.cornell.edu/about/departments). Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 12, 2022.

1. Steele, Bill (June 11, 2008). ["Robert Constable, founding dean of computing and information science, will step down in 2009"](https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2008/06/robert-constable-step-down-cis-dean). *Cornell Chronicle*. Cornell University.

1. ["Great Panel at CIS 20th Anniversary Event Recalls CIS's Controversial Creation"](https://cis.cornell.edu/great-panel-cis-20th-anniversary-event-recalls-ciss-controversial-creation). Cornell Bowers CIS. October 2019. Retrieved November 23, 2022.

1. ["Cornell to build info campus with Gates gift"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112997205/). *Star-Gazette*. Associated Press. January 26, 2006. p. 4A. – via Newspapers.com.

1. ["Gift from Ann S. Bowers '59 Creates New College of Computing and Information Science"](https://infosci.cornell.edu/information/news/newsitem1000/gift-ann-s-bowers-59-creates-new-college-computing-and-information). *Cornell Chronicle*. Cornell University. December 17, 2020.

1. Agresti, Alan (ed.) (2013). ["Biometrics and Statistical Science at Cornell"](https://books.google.com/books?id=kPGJUiUCJZkC&pg=PA49). *Strength in Numbers: The Rising of Academic Statistics Departments in the U. S.*. New York: Springer. pp. 39 50. ISBN 978-1-4614-3649-2. At p. 49.

1. ["Cornell plans new $100M computer science building on Hoy Field"](https://ithacavoice.com/2022/05/cornell-plans-new-computer-science-building-on-hoy-field/). *The Ithaca Voice*. May 4, 2022.

1. ["From the new dean: CIS has more legs to stand on"](https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2010/02/new-dean-says-cis-has-more-legs-stand). *Cornell Chronicle*. February 17, 2010.

1. ["Move Over Baseball, The Future of Cornell is CIS"](https://www.ithaca.com/news/ithaca/move-over-baseball-the-future-of-cornell-is-cis/article_c422aeea-1341-11ed-b99e-4fcd6b6ae0b9.html). *Ithaca Times*. August 3, 2022.

1. ["Kavita Bala Named New Dean of Computing and Information Science"](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/information/news/newsitem11212/kavita-bala-named-new-dean-computing-and-information-science). Cornell University. June 5, 2020.

1. ["Dan Huttenlocher named inaugural dean of MIT Schwarzman College of Computing"](https://news.mit.edu/2019/dan-huttenlocher-named-inaugural-mit-schwarzman-college-of-computing-dean-0221). MIT News Office. February 21, 2019.

1. "Women in Computing—Take 2". *Communications of the ACM*. **52** (2): 68–76. February 2009. [doi:10.1145/1461928.1461947](https://doi.org/10.1145/1461928.1461947). [S2CID 1161329](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:1161329) At p. 71.

1. *The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley*. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005. pp. 230, 231, 253, 306.

1. [https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/10/new-cornell-bowers-building-dedicated](https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/10/new-cornell-bowers-building-dedicated)

1. ["Cofounders of Wayfair Donate $10 Million to Cornell"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112987588/the-boston-globe/). *The Boston Globe*. September 21, 2021. p. B6. – via Newspapers.com.

1. ["$10 Million Alumni Donation Funds New Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science Building"](https://cornellsun.com/2021/10/15/10-million-alumni-donation-funds-new-ann-s-bowers-college-of-computing-and-information-science-building/). *The Cornell Daily Sun*. October 15, 2021.

1. ["Graduate Opportunities"](https://cis.cornell.edu/future-students/graduate-opportunities). Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 12, 2022.

1. ["Welcome to Computer Science at Cornell University"](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/information/about). Department of Computer Science, Cornell University. Retrieved January 28, 2023.

1. ["About"](https://infosci.cornell.edu/about). Department of Information Science, Cornell University. 8 January 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2023.

1. ["Associate or Full Professor of the Department of Statistics and Data Science; Ithaca, New York"](https://apps.hr.cornell.edu/recruiting/facultyview.cfm?posting_id=_JOB_POSTING-3-46696). Human Resources, Cornell University. Retrieved January 28, 2023.

1. ["Cornell announces new planned science building"](https://www.tompkinsweekly.com/articles/cornell-announces-new-planned-science-building/). *Tompkins Weekly*. May 25, 2022.

1. ["Leadership"](https://cis.cornell.edu/faculty-staff/resources-faculty-staff). Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 12, 2022.

1. [https://cis.cornell.edu/new-building](https://cis.cornell.edu/new-building)

1. ["Dean Kavita Bala"](https://cis.cornell.edu/about-college/dean-kavita-bala). Cornell Bowers CIS. Retrieved November 11, 2022.

1. [https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/09/kavita-bala-dean-cornell-bowers-cis-named-provost](https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/09/kavita-bala-dean-cornell-bowers-cis-named-provost)

1. ["Computer Dept. Wins Prominence Throughout U.S."](https://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/imageserver.pl?oid=CDS19781115&getpdf=true). *The Cornell Daily Sun*. November 15, 1978. pp. 1, 10, 11.

1. ["Best Computer Science Schools"](https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings?_sort=rank-asc). *U.S. News & World Report*. 2022. Retrieved October 29, 2022. See "More Rankings" button for specialty rankings.

1. ["Best Statistics Programs"](https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/statistics-rankings?_sort=rank-asc). *U.S. News & World Report*. 2022. Retrieved November 16, 2022.

## External links

- [Official website](https://cis.cornell.edu/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cornell Computing and Information Science](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_Computing_and_Information_Science) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_Computing_and_Information_Science?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.