Computer Science

Department Website: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/csci

With multicore computers, grid, and cluster computing, Computer Science interest in parallel programming is increasing. In addition to the CSci 100 upperdivision general education class, Computer Science is interested in concurrency and parallelism for its own sake. William Gropp notes that parallelism is "both a natural approach and offered the possibility of a rapid increase in the computational power available to solve large-scale problems." In the same discussion, Maurice Herlihy notes that "The [Computer Science] curriculum is slow to reflect this change, mostly because curriculums change slowly. It takes a lot of work to change them."

However, Fresno State's Computer Science department has a history of offering parallel programming courses, with existing undergraduate courses in Parallel Processing (CSci 176) and Distributed Computer Systems (CSci 177). We feel that the computational Computer Science compute clusters is rejuvenating this area. Additionally, in cooperation with the Department of Biology, CSci 101 Computational Foundations for Bioinformatics wil be redesigned and offered.