Power Surge: Why Expanding Computer Science at UT Will Expand the Texas Economy

Computer Science is accelerating in a big way at The University of Texas at Austin, and the Texas economy is poised to reap some impressive rewards as a result. The new home for the Department of Computer Science (UTCS)—the only top-ten computer science program within 1000 miles—it's a good time to take stock of the department's considerable impact on the state of Texas.

Rarely is an academic unit positioned to contribute to the economy in such a pervasive and significant way as UTCS does. UTCS produces 20% of computer science graduates in Texas. Two-thirds of the department's graduates stay in Texas, and each graduate has an annual economic impact of $1.3 million and creates 5.7 permanent jobs. Ray Perryman, noted Texas economist, estimates that the department's overall contribution to the growth of the Texas high-tech economy is $8.7 billion annually and that the department's economic impact will increase 25% to approximately $11 billion annually due to the program growth enabled by the new computer science complex.

Expanding the economic and educational impact of UTCS in the Texas technology economy just makes good sense because growing the quality and quantity of computing education and discoveries ensures a strong digital future.

Academic Achievement and Talent

In a global economy, a solid talent base in the sciences is needed to keep America a world leader with strong economic power. It means jobs, security and quality of life today and for the future. Texas can play an important part by developing people and ideas through rigorous education and cutting-edge research. As the only top-ten ranked computer science department within 1,000 miles of Austin, UTCS educates about 1,200 students, supports over 50 faculty and graduates about 200 computer scientists annually—more than any other top-ten department in the country. The Bill & Melinda Gates Computer Science Complex will effectively position UTCS as a regional educational and technological anchor that contributes billions to the Texas economy.

Research

Computing unleashes the imagination and is the enabling science of our age. It is the engine of innovation and discovery because pervasive and ubiquitius computing underlies virtually every academic and industry sector, making competition for leading visionaries in computing fierce. The combination of digitized data, automated processing and exponential computing power growth opens up new possibilities, insights, ideas, work flows, decision methods, connections, opportunities, products, markets and jobs.

UTCS is a recognized leader and a hub of quality education, innovative research and critical outreach that is defining a digital revolution. That digital revolution is defining the 21st century, is visible all around us and is impacting all sectors of business, medicine and science. Cell phones, email and online communications, digital cameras, online information and search engines, news feeds, music downloads and web-based travel planning have replaced pay phones, film cameras, music stores and travel agents. It is impossible to move through your day without relying on technology developed by computer scientists. UTCS innovations and commercialized technology include:

• Accurate phylogenetic tree reconstruction
• Critical sections
• Fast string searching
• Qualitative simulation
• E-commerce Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and secure network programming
• Semaphores
• Shortest-path algorithm
• Structured programming
• Model checking and reliability
• Parallel discrete-event simulation
• Internet routing
• Virus detection
• Medical imaging

Our prestigious faculty and programs consistently win top honors and awards.

Industry Relations

We proactively collaborate and partner with industry through our Friends of Computer Science program and through research partnerships. We maintain strong research partnerships with industry giants such as AT&T, Centaur Technologies, Cisco Systems, Emerson Process Management/Fisher Rosemount, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, NVIDIA, Rockwell Collins, and Yahoo!. UTCS also has strong relationships as well as research contracts with government agencies such as DARPA, NASA, NIH and NSF.

Faculty and alumni have founded many companies including Arbor Networks, Catalis, Hyperformix, Mutual Mobile, RoosterTeeth, Tivoli Software and Wintegra/PMC-Sierra. Many alumni have top leadership roles in companies such as Amazon, Cisco Systems, ClearCube, Yahoo!, Lotus Notes Division of IBM, Mentor Graphics, Oracle, QualComm and Ricoh. Our graduates are employed by more than 175 employers including Amazon, Cisco Systems, ExxonMobil, Google, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, National Instruments, Schlumberger and Yahoo!, as well as many locally headquartered companies.