The David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science is a professional school within the

Faculty of Mathematics In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Although re ...

at the University of Waterloo
QS World University Rankings
ranked the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science 24th in the world, 10th in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and 2nd in Canada in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

in 2014.
QS World University Rankings ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranked the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science 42nd in world and second in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

.
US News Best Global Universities. Retrieved 29 March 2022.

History

In 1965, when

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

was still a department within the

Faculty of Arts A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

, four third-year mathematics students (Richard Shirley, Angus German,

James G. Mitchell James George "Jim" Mitchell is a Canadian computer scientist. He has worked on programming language design and implementation ( FORTRAN WATFOR, Mesa, Euclid, C++, Java), interactive programming systems, dynamic interpreting and compiling, docume ...

, and Bob Zarnke) wrote the

WATFOR WATFIV, or WATerloo FORTRAN IV, developed at the University of Waterloo, Canada is an implementation of the Fortran computer programming language. It is the successor of WATFOR. WATFIV was used from the late 1960s into the mid-1980s. WATFIV was ...

compiler for the FORTRAN programming language, under the direction of lecturer Peter Shantz. "Within a year it would be adopted by computing centres in over eight countries, and the number of student users at UW increased to over 2500." Later on in 1966, two mathematics lecturers ( Paul Dirksen and

Paul H. Cress Paul H. Cress (1939–2004) was a Canadian computer scientist. He was a young lecturer in computer science at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) when, starting in 1966, he and his colleague Paul Dirksen led a team of progra ...

) led a team that developed WATFOR 360, for which they received the 1972

Grace Murray Hopper Award The Grace Murray Hopper Award (named for computer pioneer RADM Grace Hopper) has been awarded by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) since 1971. The award goes to a computer professional who makes a single, significant technical or serv ...

from the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

. UW's

was later established in 1967. As a result, the ''Department of Applied Analysis and Computer Science'' (AA&CS) was created. By 1969, AA&CS had become the largest department in the faculty. At that point, the first two PhD degrees in computer science were awarded, to Byron L. Ehle, for a thesis on

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...

, and to Hugh Williams, for a thesis on

computational number theory In mathematics and computer science, computational number theory, also known as algorithmic number theory, is the study of computational methods for investigating and solving problems in number theory and arithmetic geometry, including algorithms ...

. In 1975 the department dropped the words "Applied Analysis" and became simply the ''Department of Computer Science''. In 1982, the Institute for Computer Research (ICR) was established. Its goals were "to foster computer research..., facilitate interaction with industry, and encourage advanced education in computer science and engineering." Also that year, the Ontario government announced plans to build the

Davis Centre Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community * Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Greenl ...

, current home of the School of Computer Science. The groundbreaking was in April 1985 and the Davis Centre was formally dedicated on November 10, 1988. On May 1, 2002, the department officially became the ''School of Computer Science''. On November 18, 2005, it was renamed again to the ''David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science'', in recognition of the establishment of the David R. Cheriton Endowment for Excellence in Computer Science. Cheriton had recently donated $25 million to the university. Support for computing within the School of Computer Science had been historically provided by the Computer Science Computing Facility (CSCF) and ICR.

Programs

The David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science offers several diverse undergraduate programs including: *

Bachelor of Computer Science The Bachelor of Computer Science (abbreviated BCompSc or BCS) is a bachelor's degree awarded by some universities for completion of an undergraduate program in computer science. In general, computer science degree programs emphasize the mathemati ...

** Honours Computer Science *** Business Option ***

Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...

Option *** Digital Hardware Option *** Software Engineering Option ** Honours Data Science *

Bachelor of Mathematics A Bachelor of Mathematics (abbreviated B.Math or BMath) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for successfully completing a program of study in mathematics or related disciplines, such as applied mathematics, actuarial science, computational ...

** Honours Computer Science *** Business Option *** Digital Hardware Option *

Bachelor of Software Engineering A Bachelor of Software Engineering Honours ''BSE(Hons.)'' is an undergraduate academic degree (Bachelor's Degree) awarded for completing a program of study in the field of software development for computers in information technology. "Software En ...

* Bachelor of Computing and Financial Management In general, the philosophy of the undergraduate program is to build a solid foundation of mathematics and computer science during the first three years of the program, allowing students more flexibility in fourth year. Required courses for all computer science programs include courses in combinatorics, data structures, algorithms, compilers, software engineering and operating systems. The curriculum is also designed to encourage either significant depth in an area outside of computer science (such as in the Bioinformatics Option) or exposure to a variety of areas outside of the computer science. The school also offers Masters of Mathematics and Ph.D. graduate programs. * Master of Mathematics (Computer Science) * Ph.D. in Computer Science

Reputation

The university is well-regarded in the field of Computer Science, where it ranks 41st in the world and fourth in Canada according to the

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' (often referred to as the THE Rankings) is an annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' (THE) magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli ...

, and 22nd in the world and second in Canada in the

QS World University Rankings ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for the ...

in 2019.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:David R. Cheriton School Of Computer Science University of Waterloo David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science (University of Waterloo) Educational institutions established in 2002 2002 establishments in Ontario

History

Programs

Reputation

References

Further reading

External links