DIRECTOR, COURANT INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES:
Professor Charles M. Newman

CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT:
Professor Margaret H. Wright

DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES, M.S. IN COMPUTER SCIENCE:
Associate Professor Ernest Davis

DIRECTOR, M.S. IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS:
Clinical Associate Professor Arthur Goldberg

DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES, PH.D.:
Associate Professor Denis Zorin

The Department of Computer Science offers programs leading to M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. Ph.D. recipients typically become faculty members at institutions of higher learning or researchers in industry or government. Students who obtain an M.S. degree in computer science are qualified to do significant development work in computing and information technology and many related applications, including finance. The department also offers (1) a Master of Science program in information systems with an emphasis on the application of computer systems in the business world, in collaboration with the Stern School of Business; and (2) a Master of Science program in scientific computing, in cooperation with the Department of Mathematics of the Courant Institute. The program in scientific computing provides broad training in areas related to computation in the mathematical, physical, and biological sciences.

Established in 1969 as part of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the department has experienced substantial growth in its faculty, student body, research staff, and funding in the last decade. Research areas include algorithms, artificial intelligence, computational biology and genomics, computational geometry, computer vision, cryptography, distributed and high-performance computing, graphics, machine learning, motion capture, multimedia and visualization, natural language processing, networking, operating systems, programming languages, scientific computing, theoretical computer science, and verification.

The core of the M.S. curriculum consists of courses in algorithms, programming languages, compilers, and operating systems. Additional requirements involve a selection of courses in areas such as artificial intelligence, databases, graphics, machine learning, numerical methods, or applications of computing in the sciences.

Adjunct faculty, often drawn from the industrial research sector, teach special topics courses in their areas of expertise, contributing their state-of-the-art experience to the curriculum. Members of the department collaborate actively with faculty in the Departments of Mathematics, Biology, and Physics; the Center for Neural Science; the Tisch School of the Arts; and the Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Faculty

Clark Barrett, Assistant Professor. Ph.D. 2002 (computer science), M.S. 1998 (computer science), Stanford; B.S. 1995 (mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering), Brigham Young.
Formal methods; hardware verification; cooperating decision procedures; Boolean satisfiability; symbolic simulation; model checking.

Marsha J. Berger, Professor, Computer Science, Mathematics; Acting Chair, Department of Computer Science (January 15, 2007-January 14, 2008). Ph.D. 1982 (computer science), M.S. 1978 (computer science), Stanford; B.S. 1974 (mathematics), SUNY (Binghamton).
Computational fluid dynamics; adaptive methods; parallel scientific computing.

Richard Bonneau, Assistant Professor, Biology, Computer Science. Ph.D. 2001 (biochemistry, biomolecular structure and design program), Washington; B.A. 1997 (biochemistry), Florida State.
Algorithms for learning regulatory networks/biological control, computational structural biology, and systems biology.

Christoph Bregler, Associate Professor, Ph.D. 1998 (computer science), M.S. 1995 (computer science), California (Berkeley); B.S. 1993, Karlsruhe.
Computer vision; computer graphics; animation; biomedical applications.

Richard Cole, Professor. Ph.D. 1982 (computer science), M.S. 1980 (computer science), Cornell; B.A. 1978 (mathematics), Oxford.
Design and analysis of combinatorial algorithms; string and pattern matching; approximations; algorithmic visualization.

Ernest Davis, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1984 (computer science), Yale; B.Sc. 1977 (mathematics), Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Artificial intelligence; knowledge representation; automated commonsense reasoning.

Yevgeniy Dodis, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 2000 (electrical engineering and computer science), M.S. 1998 (electrical engineering and computer science), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; B.A. 1996 (computer science), New York.
Cryptography; approximation algorithms; information theory; lower bounds; combinatorics.

Davi Geiger, Associate Professor, Computer Science, Neural Science. Ph.D. 1990 (physics), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; B.S. 1980 (physics), Pontifical Catholic (Rio de Janiero).
Computer vision, learning, memory, and their applications.

Benjamin Goldberg, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1988 (computer science), M.S., M.Phil. 1984 (computer science), Yale; B.A. 1982 (mathematical sciences), Williams College.
Design and implementation of programming languages; compiler optimizations; memory management.

Allan Gottlieb, Professor. Ph.D. 1973 (mathematics), M.A. 1968 (mathematics), Brandeis; B.S. 1967 (mathematics), Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Parallel computing; computer architecture; operating systems; distributed systems; free software.

Robert Grimm, Assistant Professor. Ph.D. 2002 (computer science), M.S. 1998 (computer science and engineering), Washington; M.Eng. 1996 (computer science and electrical engineering), B.S. 1996 (computer science and engineering), Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Operating systems, distributed systems, and the interaction between programming languages and systems.

Ralph Grishman, Professor. Ph.D. 1973 (physics), B.A. 1968 (physics), Columbia.
Natural language processing.

Vijay Karamcheti, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1998 (computer engineering), Illinois (Urbana-Champaign); M.S. 1990 (computer engineering), Texas (Austin); B.Tech. 1988 (electrical engineering), Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur).
Parallel computing; computer architecture; operating systems; distributed systems.

Zvi M. Kedem, Professor. D.Sc. 1974, M.S. 1972, B.S. 1967 (mathematics), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
Parallel and distributed computing.

Yann LeCun, Professor. Ph.D. 1987 (computer science), Paris VI; Engineer Diploma 1983 (electrical engineering), ESIEE (Paris).
Machine learning; data mining; computer vision; robotics; data compression; document understanding; digital libraries.

Jinyang Li, Assistant Professor. Ph.D. 2005, M.S. 2001 (computer science), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; B.S. 1998 (computer science), National (Singapore).
Operating systems; distributed systems; informational retrieval and wireless networks.

David Mazières, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 2000, M.S. 1997 (computer science), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; B.A. 1994 (computer science), Harvard.
Operating systems; security; distributed systems; storage.

I. Dan Melamed, Assistant Professor. Ph.D. 1998, M.S. 1993 (engineering), Pennsylvania; B.S. 1992 (cognitive science and artificial intelligence), Toronto.
Natural language processing; machine learning; systems engineering.

Bhubaneswar Mishra, Professor, Computer Science, Mathematics. Ph.D. 1985 (computer science), M.S. 1983, Carnegie Mellon; B.Tech. 1980 (communication engineering), Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur); I.Sc. 1975, Utkal.
Computational biology.

Mehryar Mohri, Professor. Ph.D. 1993 (computer science), Paris VII; M.S. 1989 (mathematics and computer science), Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris ; M.S. 1988 (computer science), Paris VII; B.S. 1987 (mathematics, physics, and computer science), Ecole Polytechnique de Paris.
Machine learning; natural language processing; computational biology; algorithms.

Michael L. Overton, Professor, Computer Science, Mathematics. Ph.D. 1979 (computer science), M.S. 1977 (computer science), Stanford; B.Sc. 1974 (computer science), British Columbia.
Numerical analysis; linear algebra; optimization.

Kenneth Perlin, Professor. Ph.D. 1986 (computer science), M.S. 1984 (computer science), New York; B.A. 1979 (theoretical mathematics), Harvard.
Computer graphics; simulation; computer/human interface; multimedia; animation. Research site: mrl.nyu.edu/perlin.

Amir Pnueli, Professor. Ph.D. 1967 (applied mathematics), Weizmann Institute of Science; B.Sc. 1962 (mathematics), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
Automatic proof methods for correctness; automatic recognition of graphic data; compositional verification of reactive, real-time, and hybrid systems; logics of programs; refinement; using temporal logic; schemata theory and its relations to formal languages theory; semantics and verification of concurrent programs; specification and nonprocedural languages; specification; verification and systematic development of real-time and hybrid systems; synthesis of compositional verification of reactive, real-time, and hybrid systems; temporal logic; theory of computation; verification and synthesis of programs.

Dennis Shasha, Professor. Ph.D. 1984 (applied mathematics), Harvard; M.S. 1980 (computer and information science), Syracuse; B.S. 1977 (engineering and applied science), Yale.
Pattern discovery in biology, chemistry, and linguistics; software for tree and graph matching and searching; design and tuning of large database systems; data mining in financial and environmental databases; puzzles and mathematical thought.

Victor Shoup, Professor. Ph.D. 1989 (computer science), M.S. 1985 (computer science), Wisconsin (Madison); B.S. 1983, Wisconsin (Eau Claire).
Cryptography; algorithms.

Alan Siegel, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1983, Stanford; M.S. 1975, New York; B.S. 1968, Stanford.
VLSI design; analysis of algorithms; lower bounds; parallel algorithms; computer vision.

Joel H. Spencer, Professor, Mathematics, Computer Science. Ph.D. 1970 (mathematics), Harvard; B.S. 1965 (mathematics), Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Theoretical computer science; discrete mathematics.

Lakshminarayanan Subramanian, Assistant Professor. Ph.D. 2005, M.S. 2002 (computer science), California (Berkeley); B.Tech. 1999 (computer science), Indian Institute of Technology (Madras).
Network security; secure distributed systems; overlay networks; wireless networks; and computer science technologies for health care with specific emphasis on developing countries.

Margaret H. Wright, Professor; Silver Professor; Chair, Department of Computer Science (on sabbatical January 15, 2007-January 14, 2008). Ph.D. 1976 (computer science), M.S. 1965 (computer science), B.S. 1964 (mathematics), Stanford.
Numerical optimization; numerical methods; scientific computing.

Chee K. Yap, Professor. Ph.D. 1980 (computer science), Yale; B.S. 1975 (mathematics and computer science), Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Computational geometry; computer algebra; computer-aided manufacturing; visualization; algorithmic robotics; complexity theory.

Denis Zorin, Associate Professor. Ph.D. 1997 (computer science), California Institute of Technology; M.S. 1993 (mathematics), Ohio State; B.S. 1991 (computer science and physics), Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Computer graphics; geometric modeling; subdivision surfaces; multi-resolution surface representations; perceptually based methods for computer graphics.

RESEARCH FACULTY

Satoshi Sekine.

ASSOCIATED FACULTY IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Richard Pollack, Anna-Karin Tornberg, and Olof Widlund, Mathematics; Tamar Schlick, Chemistry; Helen Nissenbaum, Culture and Communication (Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development).

AFFILIATED FACULTY IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Foster Provost, IOMS/IS Group (Leonard N. Stern School of Business).

CLINICAL FACULTY

Deena Engel, Nathan Hull, Evan Korth, Sanà Odeh.

SENIOR LANGUAGE LECTURER

Samuel Marateck.

FACULTY EMERITI

Martin Davis, Robert B. K. Dewar, Malcolm Harrison, Edmond Schonberg, Jacob T. Schwartz.