History of the CSE Department
1911 - SMU was founded by what is now the United Methodist Church
- Physicist Robert Stewart Hyer, the president of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, is elected first president of SMU
1915 - SMU officially opens on September 22 with 706 students, 37 faculty members, 5 buildings, an endowment fund of $279,178, and three schools: the College of Liberal Arts, School of Music, and School of Theology.
1920 - Hiram Abiff Boaz is installed as SMU’s second president.
1923 - Charles Claude Selectman is installed as SMU’s third president.
1925 - School of Engineering established at SMU with input from the Technical Club of Dallas and the North Texas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
- A new framing building just north of Dallas Hall houses classrooms and laboratories for the entering class of 120 aspiring engineers.
1939 - Umphrey Lee (class of 1916)—who had been the first SMU student body president—is elected the fourth president of the University. A Methodist minister and dean at Vanderbilt University, Lee is also the first SMU president to have earned a doctoral degree
1949 - Caruth Engineering Building opens
1954 - Dr. Willis McDonald Tate installed as SMU’s fifth president
1956 - The Umphrey Lee Students Center opens
1957 - Bradfield Computer Center opens.
- Drs. Paul Minton and Finley Tatum serve as co-directors of the SMU Computing Center
- Remington Rand Univac Division sets up a $1,000,000 Univac computing system on the SMU campus. The Univac Scientific Computer can add nearly 30,000 numbers per second. Computer is to be used jointly by SMU and private industry.
1961 - Science Information Center opens
1965 - Sophus Thompson becomes Acting Dean School of Engineering
1966 - Ronald Gue becomes Director of the SMU Computing Center
1967 - IBM 360/44 installed in the Bradford Computing Center. This was the first large-scale computer to be available to faculty and students for their exclusive use.
- The School of Engineering changes its name to the Institute of Technology
- Dr. Thomas L. Martin becomes Dean of the SMU Institute of Technology.
- Computer Science Center is established. This is considered the beginning of the computer science program at SMU. Ronald Gue is department chair. The department was housed on the 3rd floor of Caruth.
1968 - William P. Pierskalla, Richard Nance, Mike O’Hagan, B. Lynn Turlington, and Harvey Greenberg join the Computer Science Center
1969 - SMU has 80 buildings, an on-campus enrollment of 7,000, a faculty of 650, and an endowment of $24.709 million on a campus of 155 acres
- U. Narayan Bhat joins the Computer Science Center
- University removes the IBM 360 and leased space in Bradfield for a Univac 1108, run by University Computing Company. The computer’s resources were sold commercially and SMU was given whatever time was left over.
1970 - Name changed to CS/OR Center and Robert A Korfhage becomes the CS department chair
- Bachelor of Applied Science in computer science established. The CS/OR Center also offers a Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Engineering (which had existed for several years) Faculty included: Robert A Korfhage, U. Narayan Bhat , James Kalan, Harvey Greenberg, Leon Cooper, Richard E. Nance, Michael O’Hagan, and B. Lynn Turlington.
- Leon Cooper hired as Associate Dean and Professor of CS/OR
- Stephen A. Szygenda hired as Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and CS/OR
- Dennis Frailey and James Kalan hired as Assistant Professors of CS. They are the first faculty with Ph.D.s in Computer Science.
- Mary Kateley was the department’s administrative assistant and stayed in that role for at least a decade.
1971 - Williab C. Nylin joins the department as Assistant Professor of CS
- Courses in telecommunications first offered.
1972 - U. Narayan Bhat becomes Director of the Computer Science/Operations Research Department
- SMU aquired a Control Data Cyber 72 computing system as its academic mainframe. This remained SMU’s academic system for many years.
- Jeff Noyes was director of the Bradfield Computer Center.
- Myron Ginsberg and Robert Smith hired as Assistant Professors of CS
1973 - The CS/OR Center becomes the CS/OR Department as the Institute of Technology changes from a matrixed “Center” and “Department” structure to a traditional “Department” structure
- Robert R. Korfhage is Chairman Computer Science Curriculum
- M.S.. in Computer Science and Industrial Engineering are established, along with B.S. and M.S. in Management Systems and Operations Research
- Jeff Kennington joins department along with T.R.N. Rao and Larry LeBlanc
1974 - David Matula hired as CS/OR Department chairman
- John Fike and Bill Day join the department
- CS Department moves to the Bradfield Computer Center
- PhD and Doctor of Engineering in Computer Science and Operations Research are established
1975 - Operations Research is separated into a new Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research with U. Narayan Bhat as chair. Faculty include Cooper, Day, Kennington, LeBlanc, Matula (joint)
- CS Faculty include Matula, Fike, Frailey, Ginsberg, Korfhage, Rao, Smith
- Leon Cooper becomes acting dean of the Institute of Technology
- CS Department moves to Patterson Hall
1976 - Institute of Technology changes name to School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS)
- Narayan Bhat becomes Acting Dean SEAS
- Karl Willenbrock becomes Dean of SEAS
- Leland Beck joins CS faculty
1977 - Bill Applebee joins the CS Faculty
1979 - Computer Science department changes name to Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)
- B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Computer Engineering established (Previously, computer engineering was only available as a track within the Electrical Engineering curricula).
1980 - William F. Leonard becomes interim chair of CSE
- L. Donald Shields installed as SMU’s eighth president
1982 - Robert R. Korfhage becomes acting chair of CSE
- Robert Fossum becomes dean of SEAS
- CS Department moves to the 3rd floor of the Science and Information Center.
1983 - David Y.Y. Yun becomes chair CSE
1984 - Margaret H. Eich (Dunham) joins the CSE department
1985 - Received ABET accreditation for undergraduate Computer Engineering program
1987 - A. Kenneth Pye installed as SMU’s ninth president
1989 - Someshwar Gupta is acting dean of the SEAS
- Jeff Kennington becomes chair of CSE
- Campus-wide library catalog is automated
1990 - Andre G. Vacroux becomes dean of SEAS
- Sukumaran Nair joins CSE faculty
1991 - Frank Coyle joins CSE faculty
1994 - M.S. in Software Engineering established
- Dan Moldovan becomes chair CSE
1995 - Jeff Tian joins CSE faculty
- Beth Minton Joins CSE staff
- R. Gerald Turner installed as SMU's tenth president
1996 - Debra McDowell joins CSE staff
- The university updates photo identification badges by adding a magnetic encoding
- Project Pegasus installs Smart Terminals and now offers credit card payment options. Students are now also able to register on the World Wide Web.
1998 - Richard. V. Helgason becomes interim chair of CSE
1999 - Don Evans joins CSE faculty
- SMU works overtime to update all computers to be Y2K compliant
2000 - Judy Etchison Joins CSE faculty
- Stephen A. Szygenda returns to SMU as Dean of the School of Engineering and acting chair of CSE
- Peter-Michael Seidel joins CSE faculty
- SEAS changes its name to School of Engineering
2001 - Hesham El-Rewini comes to SMU as chair of CSE
2002 - Mitch Thornton, Fatih Kocan, and Saad Mneimneh join CSE faculty
- Jerry Junkins building opens
2003 - Tracks of study added to the B.S. Computer Engineering degree program
- First edition CSExpress, the departmental newletter, is issued
- Received ABET accreditation for undergraduate Computer Science program
2004 - Geoffrey C. Orsak becomes Dean of the School of Engineering
2005 - Tracks of study added to the B.S. Computer Science degree program
- M.S. in Security Engineering established
- Mark Fontenot joins CSE faculty
2007 - Doctor of Engineering in Software Engineering established
- CSE department moves back to Caruth Hall
- Sumi Helal and LiGuo Huang join CSE faculty