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Detailed Information

Programs of Study

The Department offers the Ph.D. and a professional M.S. degree. Study for the M.S. degree includes algorithms, programming languages, and hardware as well as important areas of application. The Ph.D. program includes courses in specialized areas and preparation for teaching and advanced research. Students pursue particular areas of their choice and are actively involved in research. The curricula emphasize the design and application of real computer systems and the portion of theory that guides and supports practice. The Department’s orientation is experimental, with clusters of research in algorithms and complexity theory, bioinformatics and computational biology, computer architectures, computer graphics and image analysis, computer-supported cooperative work, computer security, computer vision, distributed systems, geometric modeling and computation, hardware systems and design, high-performance and parallel computing, human-machine interaction, hypermedia and digital libraries, mechanical theorem proving, Monte Carlo methods, multimedia systems, networking, physically-based modeling, real-time systems, robotics, and software engineering and environments. Students holding an assistantship can typically expect to earn the M.S. degree in two academic years and the Ph.D. in four or five years.

Research Facilities

All of the Department’s computing facilities are housed in two adjoining four-story computer science buildings that feature specialized research laboratories for graphics and image processing, telepresence and computer vision, computer building and design, and collaborative, distributed, and parallel systems. Completed in summer 2008, the newly constructed addition to the building allows for additional office and research space, including an updated graphics lab and new computer security and robotics labs. The labs, offices, conference areas, and classrooms are bound together by the Department’s fully integrated distributed computing environment, which includes more than 1,000 computers, ranging from older systems used for generating network traffic for simulated Internet experiments to state-of-the-art workstations and clusters for graphics- and compute-intensive research. These systems are integrated by high-speed networks and by software that is consistent at the user level over the many architectural platforms. Each student is assigned a computer, with computer assignments based on the students’ research or teaching responsibilities and their seniority within the Department. In addition to the Departmental servers and office systems, the research laboratories contain a wide variety of specialized equipment and facilities. The nearby Brauer Library has extensive holdings in mathematics, physics, statistics, operations research, and computer science.

Financial Aid

During the academic year, most students are supported by assistantships and fellowships. The stipend for research and teaching assistantships for the nine-month academic year in 2009–10 is $16,620 (20 hours per week). Full-time summer employment on a research project is normally available to students who would like to receive support. The rate for summer 2009 is $850 (40 hours per week) for ten to twelve weeks. This produces a combined annual financial package for graduate assistants of approximately $26,820. Students with assistantships qualify for a Graduate Student Tuition Grant and pay no tuition; they are responsible for paying student fees of $850 per semester. Graduate Student Tuition Grants typically cover M.S. students for four semesters of study and Ph.D. students for ten semesters of study. At no additional cost to them, students are also covered by a comprehensive major medical insurance program, underwritten by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina. Each semester, the Department provides a $500 educational fund to any student who receives a competitive fellowship that is not granted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC–Chapel Hill). The fund may be used for education-related expenses, including books, journals, travel, computer supplies and accessories, and professional memberships. The Department also awards a $1500 supplement each semester to nonservice fellowship holders who join a research team. To apply for an assistantship, the applicant should check the appropriate item on the admission application form. Applicants for assistantships are automatically considered for all available fellowships. Students can expect continued support, contingent upon satisfactory work performance and academic progress. Students are encouraged to gain professional experience through summer internships with companies in the Research Triangle area or in other parts of the country.

Cost of Study

For the 2009–10 academic year, estimated tuition and fees for graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are $7162 for state residents and $21,560 for nonresidents. Virtually all graduate students in computer science pay no tuition, as mentioned in the Financial Aid section.

Living and Housing Costs

Annual living costs for single graduate students in the Chapel Hill area are estimated by University staff members to be $18,000 or higher. On-campus housing is available for both married and single students attending the University.

Student Group

The Department of Computer Science enrolls approximately 140 graduate students, most of whom attend full-time.

Student Outcomes

A majority of the Department’s master’s graduates work in industry, in companies ranging from small start-up operations to government research labs and large research and development corporations. Ph.D. graduates work in both academia and industry. Academic employment ranges from positions in four-year colleges, where teaching is the primary focus, to positions at major research universities. Some graduates take postdoctoral positions at research laboratories prior to continuing in industry or joining academia.

Location

Chapel Hill (population 49,900) is a scenic college town located in the heart of North Carolina, where small-town charm mixes with a cosmopolitan atmosphere to provide students with a rich and varied living experience. The town and the surrounding area offer many cultural advantages, including excellent theater and music, museums, and a planetarium. There are also many opportunities to watch and to participate in sports. The Carolina beaches, the Outer Banks, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the Blue Ridge Mountains are only a few hours’ drive away. The Research Triangle of North Carolina is formed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University in Durham, and North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The universities have a combined enrollment of more than 74,000 students, have libraries with more than 14 million volumes with interconnected catalogs and have national prominence in a variety of disciplines. Collectively, they conduct more than $1.5 billion in research each year.

The University and The Department

The 729-acre central campus of UNC–Chapel Hill is among the most beautiful in the country. Of the approximately 28,500 students enrolled, nearly 11,000 are graduate and professional students. The Department’s primary missions are research and graduate and undergraduate teaching. It offers the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees. The Computer Science Students’ Association sponsors both professional and social events and represents the students in Departmental matters. Its president is a voting member at faculty meetings. There is much interaction between students and faculty members, and students contribute to nearly every aspect of the Department’s operation.

Applying

Applications for spring admission, complete with a personal statement, all transcripts, three letters of recommendation, and official GRE and/or TOEFL scores should be received by the Graduate School no later than October 15. Early submission of applications is encouraged. International applicants should consider completing their applications earlier to allow time for processing financial and visa documents. The option of spring admission is only available as space permits. Applicants should check the Department Web site for the latest information regarding application deadlines.

Applications for fall admission, complete with a personal statement, all transcripts, three letters of recommendation, and official GRE and/or TOEFL scores should be received by the Graduate School no later than January 1. Early submission is encouraged. International applicants should consider completing their applications earlier to allow time for processing financial and visa documents.

The Faculty and Their Research

• Ron Alterovitz, Assistant Professor, Ph.D. 2006, Berkeley. Medical robotics, motion planning; physically-based simulation, optimization, medical image analysis.
• James Anderson, Professor; Ph.D., Texas at Austin, 1990. Distributed and concurrent algorithms, real-time systems, fault-tolerant computing, formal methods.
• Sanjoy K. Baruah, Professor; Ph.D., Texas at Austin, 1993. Scheduling theory, real-time and safety-critical system design, computer networks, resource allocation and sharing in distributed computing environments.
• Gary Bishop, Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1984. Hardware and software for man-machine interaction, 3-D interactive computer graphics, virtual environments, tracking technologies, image-based rendering.
• Frederick P. Brooks Jr., Kenan Professor; Ph.D., Harvard, 1956. 3-D interactive computer graphics, human-computer interaction, virtual worlds, computer architecture, the design process.
• Peter Calingaert, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., Harvard, 1955.
• Prasun Dewan, Professor; Ph.D., Wisconsin–Madison, 1986. User interfaces, distributed collaboration, software engineering environments, object-oriented databases, mobile computing.
• Jan-Michael Frahm, Research Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Kiel (Germany), 2005. Computer vision, image-based modeling, image and video analysis, multiview geometry, geometric and photometric camera calibration, markerless augmented reality.
• Henry Fuchs, Federico Gil Professor; Ph.D., Utah, 1975. High-performance graphics hardware, 3-D medical imaging, head-mounted displays, virtual environments.
• John H. Halton, Professor Emeritus; D.Phil., Oxford, 1960.
• Kye S. Hedlund, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Purdue, 1982. Computer-aided design, computer architecture, algorithm design and analysis, parallel processing.
• Kevin Jeffay, Gillian Cell Distinguished Professor and Associate Chairman for Academic Affairs; Ph.D., Washington (Seattle), 1989. Real-time systems, operating systems, distributed systems, multimedia networking, computer-supported cooperative work, performance evaluation.
• Jasleen Kaur, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Texas at Austin, 2002. Design of networks and operating systems, specifically resource management for providing service guarantees, Internet measurements, overlay and peer-to-peer networks, and router architectures.
• Anselmo A. Lastra, Professor and Chairman; Ph.D., Duke, 1988. Interactive 3-D computer graphics, hardware architectures for computer graphics.
• Svetlana Lazebnik, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. Computer vision, object recognition and scene interpretation, Internet photo collections, machine learning.
• Ming C. Lin, Beverly W. Long Distinguished Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley, 1993. Physically based and geometric modeling, applied computational geometry, robotics, distributed interactive simulation, virtual environments, algorithm analysis.
• Gyula A. Magó, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., Cambridge, 1970.
• Dinesh Manocha, Phi Delta Theta/Matthew Mason Distinguished Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley, 1992. Geometric and solid modeling, physically based modeling, computer graphics, simulation-based design, symbolic and scientific computation, computational geometry.
• Ketan Mayer-Patel, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Admissions; Ph.D., Berkeley, 1999. Multimedia systems, networking, multicast applications.
• Leonard McMillan, Associate Professor, Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997. Computer graphics, image processing, computer vision, multimedia, microelectronics, computer organization.
• Fabian Monrose, Associate Professor; Ph.D., NYU, 1999. Computer and network security, biometrics, user authentification.
• Tessa Joseph Nicholas, Lecturer; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008.
• Marc Niethammer, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Georgia Tech, 2004. Quantitative image analysis, shape analysis, diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, cellular imaging, visual tracking and estimation theory, structural health monitoring.
• Stephen M. Pizer, Kenan Professor; Ph.D., Harvard, 1967. Image analysis and display, human and computer vision, graphics, numerical computing, medical imaging.
• David A. Plaisted, Professor; Ph.D., Stanford, 1976. Mechanical theorem proving, term rewriting systems, logic programming, algorithms.
• Marc Pollefeys, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Leuven (Belgium), 1999. Computer vision, image-based modeling and rendering, image and video analysis, multiview geometry.
• Jan F. Prins, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies; Ph.D., Cornell, 1987. Parallel algorithms, languages and architectures, high-level programming languages, compilers, formal techniques in program development, algorithms for structural biology and bioinformatics.
• Timothy L. Quigg, Lecturer and Associate Chairman for Administration and Finance; M.P.A., North Carolina State, 1979. Intellectual property rights, industrial relations, contract management, research administration.
• Michael K. Reiter, Lawrence M. Slifkin Distinguished Professor; Ph.D., Cornell, 1993. Computer and network security, distributed systems, applied cryptography.
• Montek Singh, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Columbia, 2001. High-performance and low-power digital systems, asynchronous circuits and systems, VLSI CAD, graphics hardware.
• F. Donelson Smith, Research Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1978. Computer networks, operating systems, distributed systems, multimedia, computer-supported cooperative work.
• John B. Smith, Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1970. Computer-supported cooperative work, hypermedia systems, World Wide Web architecture and programming, Java object storage and access.
• Jack S. Snoeyink, Professor; Ph.D., Stanford, 1990. Computational geometry, algorithms for geographical information systems and structural biology, geometric modeling and computation, algorithms and data structures, theory of computation.
• Donald F. Stanat, Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., Michigan, 1966.
• David Stotts, Professor; Ph.D., Virginia, 1985. Computer-supported cooperative work, hypermedia, software engineering and formal methods, programming languages and concurrency, interoperable distributed systems.
• Martin Styner, Research Assistant Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2001. Medical image analysis, 3-D object shape representation and quantitative shape analysis, image processing.
• Russell M. Taylor II, Research Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1994. 3-D interactive computer graphics, virtual worlds, distributed computing, scientific visualization, human-computer interaction.
• Leandra Vicci, Lecturer and Director, Applied Engineering Laboratory; B.S., Antioch (Ohio), 1964. Information processing hardware: theory, practice, systems, and applications.
• Jeannie M. Walsh, Lecturer Emeritus; M.S., Oklahoma State, 1984.
• Wei Wang, Associate Professor; Ph.D., UCLA, 1999. Data mining, database systems, bioinformatics.
• Stephen F. Weiss, Professor; Ph.D., Cornell, 1970. Information storage and retrieval, natural language processing, communications and distributed systems, computer-supported cooperative work.
• Gregory F. Welch, Research Associate Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997. Human-machine interaction, 3-D interactive computer graphics, virtual/augmented environment tracking systems, shared virtual environments and telecollaboration.
• Mary C. Whitton, Research Associate Professor; M.S., North Carolina State, 1984. Virtual and augmented reality systems for data visualization, computer graphics system architectures.
• William V. Wright, Research Professor Emeritus; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1972. Interactive systems for supporting scientific research, molecular graphics, architecture and implementation of computing systems.
• Adjunct Faculty
• Stephen Aylward, Adjunct Associate Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997.
• Elizabeth Bullitt, Adjunct Professor; M.D., Colorado at Denver, 1975. Computer-aided surgery, computer-aided diagnosis.
• Larry Conrad, Professor of the Practice, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, and Chief Information Officer; M.S., Arizona State.
• Nick England, Adjunct Research Professor; E.E., North Carolina State, 1974. Systems architectures for graphics and imaging, scientific visualization, volume rendering, interactive surface modeling.
• Mark Foskey, Adjunct Research Assistant Professor; Ph.D., California, San Diego, 1994. Computer-aided surgical planning, computer-aided diagnosis, geometric computation.
• Rob Fowler, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Washington (Seattle), 1985. Effectiveness of high-end systems in serving the needs of scientists, developing software tools that enhance the performance of grid-enabled applications.
• Guido Gerig, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 1987. Image analysis, shape-based object recognition, 3-D object representation and quantitative analysis, medical image processing.
• Morgan Giddings, Adjunct Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1997.
• Chris Healey, Adjunct Associate Professor; Ph.D., British Columbia, 1996. Computer graphics, scientific visualization, perception and cognitive vision, color, texture, databases, computational geometry.
• M. Gail Jones, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina State, 1987. Science education, gender and science, high-stakes assessment nanotechnology education, haptics and learning.
• Sarang Joshi, Adjunct Associate Professor; D.Sc., Washington (St. Louis), 1997.
• Hye-Chung (Monica) Kum, Adjunct Assistant Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004. Program evaluation, management of human services agencies, social welfare policy and program analysis using KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases), technology on social welfare administrative data, research methods.
• J. Stephen Marron, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., UCLA, 1982. Smoothing methods for curve estimation.
• Steven E. Molnar, Adjunct Associate Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1991. Architectures for real-time computer graphics, VLSI-based system design, parallel rendering algorithms.
• Frank Mueller, Adjunct Associate Professor; Ph.D., Florida State, 1994.
• Andrew B. Nobel, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Stanford, 1992. Statistical analysis of microarrays, analysis of Internet traffic, nonparametric interference, pattern recognition: clustering and clarification.
• Lars S. Nyland, Adjunct Associate Professor; Ph.D., Duke, 1991. High-performance computing, hardware systems, computer graphics and image analysis, geometric modeling and computation, parallel algorithms, parallel computer architecture, programming languages, program transformation and optimization techniques, scientific computing, real-time systems, distributed systems.
• Maria Papadopouli, Adjunct Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Columbia, 2002. Applications for mobile, wireless, ad hoc, and sensor networks; pervasive computing.
• John Poulton, Adjunct Research Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1980. Graphics architectures, VLSI-based system design, design tools, rapid system prototyping.
• Diane Pozefsky, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1979. Software engineering and environments; computer education; serious games design and development; social, legal, and ethical issues concerning information technology.
• Julian Rosenman, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Texas at Austin, 1971; M.D., Texas Health Science Center at Dallas, 1977. Computer graphics for treatment of cancer patients, contrast enhancement of poor-quality X rays.
• Dinggang Shen, Adjunct Associate Professor; Ph.D., Shanghai Jiao Tong (China), 1995.
• Diane H. Sonnenwald, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Rutgers, 1993. Collaboration among multidisciplinary, cross-organizational teams, collaboration across distances, collaboration technology, human information behavior, digital libraries.
• Richard Superfine, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Berkeley, 1991. Condensed-matter physics, biophysics, microscopy.
• Alexander Tropsha, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Moscow State (Russia), 1986.
• Sean Washburn, Adjunct Professor; Ph.D., Duke, 1982. Condensed-matter physics, materials science.

Correspondence and Information

University of North Carolina
For written information about graduate study:
Admissions and Graduate Studies
Department of Computer Science
Campus Box 3175, Brooks Computer Science Building
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3175
Telephone: 919-962-1900
Fax: 919-962-1799
Email: admit@cs.unc.edu


University of North Carolina
For applications and admissions information:
The Graduate School
Campus Box 4010, 200 Bynum Hall
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-4010
Telephone: 919-966-2611
Email: gradinfo@unc.edu